Avatar: Reemergence
by Private LL Church
Summary: Set after the events of Avatar: Reawakening. When strange, unexplainable occurrences begin to take place, friends and foes must band together to fight off a force that hasn't been seen for thousands of years.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, well, it took long enough but I am finally posting this thing. I admit...I wanted to post this a month earlier but other things got in the way...personal things. However it is, that is all behind me now so I was finally able to start writing this. I'm sure those of you that have been waiting for me to post this would rather get on with the chapter and start reading the actual story so I would just like to say two things and then I'll leave the rest of the authors notes for the end of the chapters.**

**1. This fic is a ****sequel to my other fic**, **Avatar: Reawakening. If you haven't read that yet...then I highly suggest you do because if you don't then...well, you probably wouldn't understand this fic all that much****. There will be some recap every now and then to serve as a reminder for people that have read Reawakening before but those recaps will not be enough to understand the fic if you did not read Reawakening. **

**2. Unlike Reawakening, this fic is rated M...mostly for lemons in later chapters. However, should you not want to read the lemons, or you are uncomfortable with them, I am going to make it very obvious as to when they take place so they can be easily skipped over by people that don't wish to read them. So my point is, don't let the rating turn you away from the fic. **

**Apart from that, on to the fic...**

**Disclaimer: And I still don't own Avatar**

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><p>Leadership. Control. Power.<p>

Those are the traits that Shyalum had and those are the traits needed to succeed. The fortress he was currently hiding himself in, away from the rest of the spirit world, was nothing more than an allusion; an allusion created by him. It wasn't going to help him though. Whatever Shyalum hides in, whatever form he decides to take, it will all end the same. It's unavoidable and it is his punishment for creating something that he doesn't understand and unable to control.

The Yanari: one of his many own personal creations that eventually expanded outwards from their original purpose. They grew, they thrived, and then they were locked away when they became too strong. When one is locked away though, they have time to think, to plan, and when the opportunity presents itself, they're ready to take advantage of it.

Tau had given them the opportunity. Something went wrong though. The portal for the Yanari didn't open properly and it closed after just a few simple minutes; not nearly enough time for the Yanari to escape.

One did though and it was the only one that needed to.

It sat up at the top of the massive throne room that Shyalum had built for himself, its tentacles curling around the many pillars, holding itself up at the ceiling and away from Shyalum's gaze.

Shyalum was used to being safe and it's made him sloppy when he is in the confines of his own home. He wouldn't need to look up.

The lone Yanari knew this however. All it needed was the right moment to strike. Shyalum had the power. Shyalum had control. What would happen however if that fell into something else's hands? Anything would be possible with Shyalum's powers and those powers were what the Yanari needed.

The lone Yanari, with its glowing red eyes, watched Shyalum as he moved below, its gaze following his every move.

It was time the Yanari regained their former strength and it was time for them to return stronger. They had to be in control. That starts now. They had been locked up for far too long.

As Shyalum stopped his movements, standing still below the ancient spirit that he had created so many millennia ago, he had no idea for what was to come next.

With a loud screech that was enough to bring terror into even the strongest of spirits, the lone Yanari shot off of its perch straight at Shyalum. The creator of the spirit world, of everything really, had just enough time to turn and see the dark, ghastly figure flying strait towards him.

It didn't matter though, whether he saw it or not, Shyalum didn't have time to react. There was nothing he could do, and he was barely able to feel the lone Yanari's spirit connect and merge with his own before everything faded to black…

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><p><em>One month later…<em>

Aang shot up in his bed with a sharp gasp as his head throbbed with pain. He cradled his head in his hands, rubbing his temples, trying to get the pain to stop but nothing changed. His head throbbed, and it was a feeling that he had become all too familiar with ever since he had destroyed the Southern Air Temple a little over a month ago. At first, Katara had told him that it was simply him feeling guilty but that couldn't be it. These sharp pains in his head had started about three weeks ago and they had only gotten worst since.

His breathing became ragged as the pain increased and he couldn't help but let out a sudden yelp of pain as his body leaned forward in an automatic reaction.

Suddenly though, all of the pain vanished and he felt the cool, soothing feeling of water on each side of his head. His body instantly relaxed and he fell back onto the bed. After closing his eyes briefly, he looked over to his right to see Katara kneeling beside him, dressed in her white under bindings and giving him a soft, sympathetic smile. He couldn't help but notice the glowing water the floated around her hands and he gave a grateful sigh. He should have known it was her that took the pain away, it was always her, but even she didn't know why the pains were occurring.

She waved her hands through the air, evaporating the water back to its original source she had taken it from and reached one of her hands down to cup his cheek, gently stroking the soft skin with her thumb.

He let out a soft, exhausted smile and laid his own had over hers, his own eyes meeting hers lovingly.

"Thanks," he whispered.

His girlfriend just simply shook her head as her long, wavy, dark brown hair followed her movements.

"I've told you before, you don't have to thank me for that," she told him, her eyes running up and down his body sympathetically, "It hurts me enough to see you in that much pain."

Aang let out a quite hum in acknowledgment as he sat back up beside her. His eyes darted around the room and, not to his surprise; everything was how it should be. They were in their shared bedroom, in their Ba Sing Se home, it was the middle of the night, and all he was wearing was his simple sleeping pants. Everything was fine…but then why did something feel so wrong?

Katara instantly noticed and her head tilted to the side curiously, "Is something wrong?"

His gaze turned back to her and he let out a soft laugh, "You're getting good at that."

She knew what he was talking about. Their connection they had with each other that allowed them to do so many things, some of which they haven't even discovered yet. It was the same connection that allowed them to feel each other's emotions and that allowed her to see her own, long dead mother. It also allowed them to essentially hear each other's thoughts; which was something a little more difficult to do when compared to sensing emotion but they were both still learning. Katara was sure that eventually, it would become second nature to each of them. Still though, she could help but notice that Aang hadn't answered her question.

"Well it's not all that hard anymore, I just kind of hear your thoughts how I normally would hear your voice," Katara said in response to his observation as she gave a small shrug, "But you didn't answer my question."

Aang looked away from her and down at the bed sheets while he let out a soft sigh, "I don't know. Everything seems like it will be fine. The new Earth King's coronation is tomorrow, we stopped Tau from releasing the Yanari," Aang paused and looked at her through the corners of his eyes before shifting his gaze away again, "You and I are still alive despite everything…but something just seems so wrong…out of place. I can't get it out of my head."

"Aang, it's probably nothing," Katara told him, reaching her hand out to comfort him only to have him quickly get up off the bed and move his way over to the window.

"No, it's more than that," Aang told her sternly as he leaned against the window sill and gazed out into the night sky. Katara wasn't sure if it was just her imagination but Aang seemed annoyed and that only became more apparent when she heard him give off a noticeable huff. This wasn't the first time he had brought this subject up to her in the past month but he usually just believed her when she told him nothing was wrong. Now though, he seemed to be past that.

"Well…" Katara started, not really knowing what to say next and she began to twirl her hands around each other in thought, "What do you think the problem is?"

Aang just shook his head and sighed, "I wish I knew."

Katara raised an eyebrow at him as she gazed at his unmoving form at the window. He looked, and sounded, so unsure of things right now. As always though, she decided to do the only thing that she knew would cheer him up, it always did. Just as she was about to get up from her spot on the bed and make her way over to him, he spoke up once again which stopped her movements with her legs dangling off the edge of the mattress.

"I tried to go to the spirit world yesterday too," he said, giving off a one shoulder shrug, "I thought that maybe Roku could help but you know what?"

Katara saw his head turn towards her and she met his eyes to let him know that she was listening while she gave him a small nod to continue.

"I couldn't go there," he told her, his head turning back to where he could look out the window, "I don't know why. I usually just meditate to get there and it had gotten so easy but this time I sat there for hours, just trying to get into the spirit world, and nothing happened."

Katara's brows furrowed in confusion as she bit her lip in thought before she tried to come up with an explanation, "Well maybe something is wrong with the Avatar Spirit…I mean…it's been around since forever…maybe it's just old and it can't do everything it used to be able to do."

At that comment, Aang turned around and raised his eyebrows at her, an amused look clearly evident on his face.

"What?" Katara asked, trying to sound like she didn't know why he was looking at her like that. She knew exactly why though.

Aang let out a small laugh, "Kat, I don't really think spirits can get old and lose their power and even if they did, the Avatar Spirit worked fine a month ago…I doubt anything has changed with it since then," He paused, and his looked of amusement changed to one of accusation, "Besides, is that just your way of calling me old?"

The twinkle in his eye let her know that he was just joking with her but she could help but raise her hands in front of her defensively, "Hey, I was just throwing ideas around. If you don't think it's that then what do you think it is smart guy?"

As quick as Aang had become his normal, joking self, he reverted back to what he had been before and leaned his back against the wall with his arms crossed, not saying a word. Katara could feel his emotions jumping all over the place from confusion, annoyance, exhaustion, and then back to confusion. Deciding that neither of them could really do much about it at the moment, she stood up and made her way over to him with the intention of doing what she had been planning before.

He didn't stop her. He fell into her embrace, resting his head on her shoulder as his arms held her against him. Katara couldn't help but let out a small smile, she loved being close to him like this, and she placed a light kiss on the crook of his neck while one of her hands rubbed circles on his back in comfort. She could feel all of his raging emotions fade away and they were replaced by a feeling of peace.

Aang took in a deep breath before letting it out again as he nuzzled his head against her shoulder, feeling her soft silky hair brush against his face. They stayed like that for several minutes, just holding each other and enjoying the others closeness before Katara pulled away and cupped his face in her hands.

"Look, I'm not saying that we just ignore whatever you think it going wrong but there is nothing we can do about it now until we know more," she told him slowly, locking her eyes with his own, "You're dwelling on this too much, its unhealthy and I hate to see you all confused like this…" she paused for a few moments as she thought of what else to say to get her point across, "You don't need to worry about this…those headaches you're having is what we should be worried about and if the two things are related then we'll fix it, just like we always do. Until then though, just try not to get yourself worked up about it too much okay? For me?"

He didn't say anything for a couple of moments but he finally conceded with a small nod, "Okay, Katara… I'll try."

She smiled and leaned in to place a soft kiss on his lips. She intended it to be short but his hands grasped her hips and held her to him and she couldn't help but continue the kiss. One of her hands moved up to the back of his head to deepen it and they both let out soft sighs of content in response. They were tired though, and it was the middle of the night so a few moments later they broke away and Katara led them both back to the bed. The couple spent the next few moments getting situated under the covers before they snuggled close to each other so that their foreheads were touching.

For the next few minutes, they slowly began to drift off to sleep before Aang suddenly spoke, "But wait, remember all those months ago when you felt like something was wrong when we were down in the South Pole?"

Katara, who was just about to have drifted off to sleep, opened her eyes slightly to regard him curiously, "Hmm…what about it?"

"That's kind what is going on with me right now…and you were right," Aang explained, "Not long after you started feeling like that, Tau showed up and we both know what that led to. If I am going through the same thing that you were going through…"

"Then you could be right too," Katara finished for him, her eyes widening.

Aang nodded, which looked a little awkward since they were both lying down but it got the message across.

"I had visions though," Katara told him before asking, "You haven't had any of those yet have you?"

"Well no but…" Aang paused for several moments before shaking his head, "You know what, like you said, it's not worth worrying about. If I start having visions, then we can start to worry."

Katara let out a long yawn while she responded, "Sounds like a plan."

Aang smiled slightly, before leaning in to kiss her cheek before they both fell into silence again.

While Aang was able to fall asleep rather quickly, Katara couldn't as new thoughts began to rage in her head from her own visions that Aang had just reminded her of. Those visions had the dark, ghastly creatures in them that she and Aang later learned to be ancient, dangerous spirits that were locked away in the Southern Air Temple. As far as she knew though, she and Aang had stopped their release a month ago when Aang destroyed the Southern Air Temple but her visions showed them in the world, no longer confined in their prison. Katara couldn't help but wonder if her own visions haven't been avoided yet. What if they were still somehow going to come true? What if the Yanari had still managed to be released?

The questions kept Katara up and she couldn't help but start to agree more with her boyfriend. Maybe something really was wrong…

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><p>There and back again.<p>

Tau really found it hard to believe that at the start of his journey to unlock the Yanari he was in a prison and at the end of it all…he was still in a prison.

Sure, it was a different prison but it was still a prison nonetheless. So here he was, once again, confined to a small prison cell with very little space to actually move around. He didn't even know where they prison was, he knew it was in Ba Sing Se, but his captors had put a blindfold over him before he could pinpoint the prison's specific location. Tau supposed that the one thing he should be thankful for is that the prison guards didn't torture the prisoners as they did in the Fire Nation prison that he had used to be in. Still though, he got no free time out of his cell and it was very clear to him that this was a high security facility. One top of that, they had taken his necklace which had been passed down from Avatar Kuruk and it had been his most prized possession.

That had pissed him off and the thought of escape had coursed through his mind many times but it seemed impossible at the moment. The little food that was fed to him was filled with herbs that blocked his bending ability, which he assumed was why nobody ever bothered to chain him down. As long as he ate, no one had to worry about him escaping. His bending was simply useless right now.

There was a time when he had decided to stop eating in an attempt to get his ability back and get out of this miserable place but after a few days of doing that with no luck, he realized that the effects of the herbs lasted a lot longer than he had originally believed. It got to the point where he simply just gave up and he was sure that the prison guards had been amused by the whole ordeal. They had to have noticed it.

Now, he just simply sat in one of the four corners of his cell, which was clouded in darkness with only the light seeping through from the small, barred window on the door. It irritated Tau a bit. The guards had candles scattered throughout the hallways so they could have light but no one had the decency to give the prisoners a little light…just small glimpses of it. The doors, and the cells, were all metal and besides the small barred window in the door that allowed the guards to look into the cells; the only other thing to take notice of was the small opening at the bottom of the door that the guards used to slip the food trays in. It truly was a bland and depressing environment but all things considered, Tau supposed that things could have turned out worse. He only wished that his to former companions, Ryu and Sorin, had not perished during the battle in the Southern Air Temple. They were his friends, and like everyone else he cared about, they were gone and unreachable.

His fingers taped lightly against the metal wall as the thoughts of his friends rushed through his head, bringing a deep sadness to him that he had become accustomed to but yet couldn't find the strength to ignore. All those thoughts were gone however when he heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside of his cell and he perked up from his spot on the wall that he was leaning on and turned his head towards the opening at the bottom of his cell's door.

Sure enough, a few moments later a food tray slipped into his cell and Tau looked up a bit to see the guard staring at him through the window. Something was different though. The guards here were all earthbenders and they had green or brown eyes. However, Tau found his own blue eyes staring into golden eyes…a common trait among Fire Nation citizens.

"Enjoy your dinner sir," the guard said calmly, before turning away and walking off.

Tau raised his eyebrows, one of his hands reaching up to scratch the top of his nearly shaved head in confusion. The way the guard had said it had been sympathetic and pleasant. It wasn't how the rest of the prison guards talked to him. He was usually talked down to but this guard, with the few words he had said, seemed to speak to him as an equal…maybe even as a superior.

Once Tau could no longer here the guard's footsteps, he scooted over to the food tray and his eyes widened at how much food was on it. It was easily double of what he would normally get and it wasn't just the usual old bread either. The tray was filled with bread, rice, and even meat. Tau took his tray and went back to the corner of the cell that he had been previously resting in. As he started to eat his food, he found that dozens of thoughts flowed through his head but that one stood out in particular…

That guard wasn't supposed to be here.

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><p><strong>Okay so I know this one was a little on the shorter side compared to my usual length that I give my chapters but that is because this is just<strong> **setting things up. Truth be told, on average, the chapters in this fic will probably be longer then the average chapter length of Reawakening, which was about 5000-5500 words.**

**For those of you that care, I might as well reveal the other reason why this fic took longer then originally intended to post. I added a lot to it. If you guys remember that at the end of Reawakening I said how there would be kind of a secondary story detailing Tau's past...I kind of scrapped that idea. There will still be Tau flashback but only a few. Instead, I changed Tau's story line so that it dealt with the more current issues going on here. On top of that, I also added a lot of spirit related things that originally weren't going to be there. By the end, I had to hold off the writing of this fic so I could get everything to fit together in my head.**

**One last note, like Reawakening, I am going to start this fic out with once a week updates**. **This is to give my readers a chance to figure out I posted this without being left behind. I am also a lot busier then I used to be back when I was posting Reemergence so I need to find out how well I can manage weekly updates before I update twice a week. However, I am sure we will move to twice a week updates eventually. **

**See you all next Monday and don't forget to let me know what you think!:)**


	2. Coronation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar...still.**

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><p>Aang awoke to the bright light from the sun's rays seeping in through the window. He didn't know what time it was but he wouldn't be surprised if it was almost already noon. Sitting up slowly, careful not to wake up his still sleeping girlfriend, he looked around the room. Judging by the amount of sunlight coming into it, he knew his suspicions of it being the middle of the day were right.<p>

Ever since the destruction of the Southern Air Temple a little over a month ago, he and his friends hadn't really had much to do which was why sleeping in this late had become a little bit of a norm for them. Despite everything, General Howe seemed reluctant to have their assistance so they were just left to hang out in the city and pass the time until the coronation of the new Earth King, which Aang felt like they needed to be there for. Luckily, Aang reminded himself, the coronation took place today so that meant that they should be able to finally get out of this city in a few days. It wasn't that the city was unpleasant, but Aang eventually grew tired of staying in the same place for so long. The only place he could handle staying in for more than a month was the Southern Watertribe and he suspected that was because it had practically become his new home. Maybe they could head back there once they left the city. It had been several months since they had to leave it behind when they had to chase Tau across the Earth Kingdom.

Making a mental note to talk to his friends about it Aang got up out of bed and quickly got dressed, all the while making sure he was quiet enough to not wake Katara. Getting up earlier then her had become another norm to him over the course of the past month. He knew what the reason for that was though. Once they were both up, they were nearly always together and Aang never got much time to himself and getting up earlier than her was the only way to solve that. Normally, that would not be a problem but this was something that Katara could not know about…not yet at least.

Taking a seat at the desk near the corner of the bedroom, Aang opened one of the drawers and inside sat a nearly complete betrothal necklace. Aang reached down and carefully picked it up as if it was going to shatter if he was to rough with it.

It had become his own personal project during the past month. He found that it distracted him from his guilt of destroying the Southern Air Temple but even more important than that, this was something for Katara…and something that would hopefully lead to them spending the rest of their lives together.

His decision to ask Katara to marry him had happened once he realized that they could very well lose each other. Their near death in the Si Wong Desert had proved that and it had been a wakeup call to him. He was always planning on asking Katara eventually but everything that had gone on during the past few months had encouraged him to do it sooner rather than later. So now, he was planning on asking her during his own sixteenth birthday. He still needed to put the finishing touches on the necklace though and ask her father for permission to marry her; which was the thing he was dreading the most. He knew that nervousness was common though and it was just something he would have to deal with.

Coming out of his thoughts, Aang set the necklace down on the table to inspect it. At first, he was going to make the traditional Watertribe themed necklace with a blue ribbon and a blue stone but that had very quickly changed. Aang had been surprised at the time but not long after he started to work on the betrothal necklace, Katara had had copies of her own air nomad clothes that he had given her during her birthday made. When Aang had question why she had done that, she had simply and smiled while telling him that since her destiny was to help him, which she had learned thanks to a visit from a spiritually form of her mother, it seemed only right to her that she stand alongside him and helped represent his own long lost nation. The gesture had meant a lot to Aang and he had found that she was completely serious about it. The air nomad clothes were pretty much all she wore now.

Once all that had occurred though Aang realized he should be making a necklace with a more air nomad theme to it. So he had started over and now the necklace featured a dark orange ribbon with a smooth yellow stone that had been carved into a perfect circle, courtesy of Aang's earthbending. Carved into the stones were the Air Nomad and the Watertribe symbols intertwined together. It was supposed to represent him and Katara's connection to each other, not only physically, but also in their secret spiritual connection that they had decided to keep hidden from the world.

Aang was happy with it but at the same time he was anxious, and slightly nervous, to finally ask Katara to marry him. He knew in his heart that she would say yes but still…

"Hey, what're you doing?"

Aang jumped at the sound of his girlfriend's voice and quickly tucked the necklace into his robes before turning to face her. She was lying on her side with her arm propping her head up; her deep blue eyes gazing at him curiously.

"N-nothing," Aang stammered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "I was just…um…sitting here…thinking about…stuff…"

He couldn't help but mentally face palm himself. He was sure Katara would not even need to have their spiritual connection to tell that he was lying and sure enough, she let out a small laugh and raised an eyebrow at him in amusement.

"You know, if it's a secret you could have just said so."

"Well," Aang started before pausing slightly to consider how much he wanted to say, "Yeah, it's a secret. I'm just making something…for you…"

Katara couldn't help but smile a bit. He was always trying to do something for her and the gestures tugged at her heart every time.

""Wait," she said, eyebrows furrowing in confusion once she got over the fact that Aang had decided to make her something, "You're birthday is like…three days away. Aren't I supposed to get you something?"

"You don't have to get me anything Kat," Aang told her, looking at her admiringly, "I have all that I need right here."

"Still," she argued, "you got something for me on my birthday…it wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't give you something in return…"

"I'll be happy as long as I get to spend the day with you," Aang countered.

Katara felt a small blush rise to her tanned cheeks and she positioned herself to sit up on the bed yawning a little bit as she spoke, "Well I'm still going to figure out something that I could do for you."

Aang just smiled but that quickly turned into a look of concern when he noticed that she seemed tired, despite having just got up. He got up from his seat at the desk and moved to sit beside her, one of his hands reaching out to cup her cheek gently.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, feeling her lean her head into his hand as she closed her eyes, "You seem tired."

She opened her eyes again and gave him a small smiled, "I just didn't get much sleep after our talk last night. I couldn't stop thinking about everything that has happened…and what might still happen."

Aang sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry I brought all that up… I should have known it would just worry you."

"Its fine Aang, really," she assured him, leaning forward so her forehead rested against his, "Like we said last night, let's not dwell on it. I just needed to sort things out in my head."

Aang tilted his head to give her a soft kiss. It wasn't deep. It was just one of those kisses that brought them comfort. They broke away a few moments later and Katara quickly fell into his embrace, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Love you," she whispered.

"Love you to," he murmured back, one of his hands slowly running through her hair.

They sat there for several minutes, just simply enjoying the others company. Besides, Katara found it hard to break away from him. The way he stroked her hair always felt nice to her. Still she knew they had to get on with their day so she eventually forced herself to pull away from him.

"We should probably get dressed," she said, only to pause when she noticed that he had already gotten ready for the day, "Or I should at least. The new Earth King's Coronation is today right?"

Aang nodded as he watched her walk over to the dresser to pull out her own air nomad robes to get dressed in, "Yeah, its starts in a couple hours actually. We should probably leave for the palace soon."

"And then there's the coronation party afterwards," Katara continued for him, tying the robes around her tightly before running her hands along them to smooth them out, "That ought to be fun."

"Well I'm going to have to finally meet the new Earth King during it to," Aang reminded her as she walked back over to him and handed him a comb, "I still don't really know who the guy is. His name is Tetsu and he was one of Kuei's top advisors…that's about as far as my knowledge goes."

Katara let out a small laugh while trying not to move too much so it would be easier for him to comb her hair as per their usual morning routine, "You should probably fix that. It's fine though, I'm sure I'll find something to do while you're talking to him."

"It won't take long, I promise," he assured her as he finished up working out the knots in her hair.

Once he was all done he set the comb down and Katara rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek like she usually did. They spent the next few minutes making the bed up before finally heading out the bedroom door. Once they arrived at the house's main room, they were met with a very impatient looking Sokka.

"It's about time you two got up," Sokka rolled his eyes at them, "You do realize Tetsu's coronation is in half an hour right?"

"Wait what?" Aang and Katara said in unison, heads turning to look at each other in surprise briefly before turning their attention back to Sokka and Katara was the one to continue speaking, "I thought that wasn't in a few more hours."

"Well, you're wrong," Sokka said pointedly, crossing his arms, "I was about to come in there and force you two out of bed."

"Wow, well I guess we slept later then we thought we did," Aang said, glancing at Katara in the corner of his eye.

"Well I can't really blame you there," Sokka conceded, nodding slightly, "Sitting around the house doing nothing has made us pretty lazy."

"Yeah," Suki, who had been lounging on one of the couches in the room, finally spoke up, "This is probably the only time I have been with you guys that we aren't doing something life threatening. It started out as a nice change of pace at least."

"Let's just promise ourselves that we'll leave the city in a few days," Katara said, looking around at her three companions who were nodding in agreement.

"Sounds good," Sokka said a little anxiously, moving a hand up to rub his eyes, trying to get some dust out of them, "but right now we should focus less on that and focus more on getting to the coronation on time. General Howe already doesn't think that highly of us at the moment…arriving late to the meeting would not help change that. We really need to start getting our act together Team Avatar."

A few seconds of silence followed before he heard Suki speak up, "Um, Sokka?"

He moved his hand from his eyes to find that Aang and Katara were gone and he was once again alone with Suki, who was trying not to laugh. He raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Where did Katara and…"

"They just kind of walked out in the middle of your whole mini speech," Suki giggled at him.

Sokka just sighed and hung his head, _Those two…_

"Well," Sokka told her, reaching out to take her hand, leading her out the door, "Let's go catch up to them then."

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><p>Not long after, the group found themselves standing up on a large stage overlooking the courtyard at the front of the palace. Zuko, Mai, Hakoda, and the Council of Five were all present on the stage as well, glancing down at the enormous crowd that had gathered in the courtyard. King Bumi and Chief Arnook had to return to their respective cities and were unable to stay for the coronation. While the stage was filled with the world's most important leaders, all attention was focused on the man standing in front of them all: Tetsu.<p>

One thing that Aang and his friends had quickly noticed was that he seemed a lot more physically capable than Kuei had been and they hadn't been surprised during the last few minutes before the coronation when Zuko had told them that he was a powerful Earthbender. He was fairly muscular, tall, and like most people in the Earth Kingdom, he had green eyes. He also had short black hair, with a very faint beard to go along with it. When he finally spoke to give his coronation speech, his voice was deep and it was full of authority and confidence.

"Earth King Kuei was taken from us suddenly and without warning," he spoke to the crowd gathered in the courtyard, standing straight up at the front of the stage, "Many were questioning what would happen to our great city. Some believe chaos would ensure as politicians fought for power. I am standing before you now as proof that none of that would have been necessary. The Council of Five," he motioned to the group of five Generals with his hand, "did what needed to be done and made sure things stayed calm so that you and the rest of the Earth Kingdom citizens wouldn't have to suffer a government that was unable to fulfill its duty."

Tetsu began to pace back and forth across the front of the stage, holding his hands behind his back. Katara looked at Aang to see that he was watching the man closely, studying him.

"The Council of Five as given me their full support," Tetsu continued, "I helped the late Earth King watch over this magnificent city for years and I assure you, my commitment will not falter and it is stronger than ever. I will not fill your minds with empty promises. I am honest when I say that I will do everything in my power to ensure the prosperity of our great nation and I hope that I will gain your trust as we move forward into our future."

Tetsu stopped his pacing and faced directly at the crowd, holding his hands out in front of him invitingly, "This is no longer a time for mourning. This is a time for celebration as together, we are moving into a new chapter in our nation's long history!"

His voice rose at the end of the speech and the crowd responded with equal enthusiasm as they erupted into cheeps. Aang and everyone else that had gathered watched as Tetsu knelt down on the stage. General Howe stepped up behind him, holding the crown of the Earth King. Slowly, as if to see if anyone objected the new King's rule, he slid the artifact onto Tetsu's head.

No one spoke out against it and the cheers just grew louder as Tetsu stood back up, looking over the crowd and the city that now depended on his leadership. And he promised himself that he would not fail.

* * *

><p>"Just one more."<p>

Aang laughed as he gazed at Katara's pleading face. The coronation party had been going on for some time now and Aang had yet to still talk to the new Earth King. He and Katara had been busy on the dance floor and every time a song finished, Katara would ask for one more dance. He could never find it in his heart to refuse her so inevitably they would always dance to the next song. Still, he knew he would have to go meet the King eventually.

"Katara, I really should go speak with Tetsu," Aang told her, sighing a little.

"I know but just one more dance," Katara pleaded, holding his hands tightly in hers, "Then you can go do your thing…I promise."

"That's what you said last time," Aang laughed.

"I know but this time its true," Katara assured him, giving him a smile that she knew he wouldn't be able to refuse.

"Okay fine," Aang conceded, resting one of his hands on her hips, "One more."

Katara's smile grew and she leaned in to place a quick kiss on his cheek before draping a hand over his shoulder as they began to sway back and forth.

The band in the far corner of the room was only playing slow songs, which Katara assumed was probably because the room was far too crowded for any quick, energetic dances. She didn't mind though. It would be a lie if she told herself that she didn't prefer slow dancing with Aang compared to the extravagant performances they would do. Just because they weren't showing off didn't mean they didn't stand out on the dance floor however. She was sure that since they were both the only people wearing the orange and yellow air nomad clothes, people would be able to spot them pretty easily. Thankfully, people were respectful enough to leave them alone but Katara knew that there were people watching them. She ignored it though and focused solely on Aang and the way he moved with her…and they way he looked at her in a way that always made her heart flutter.

The song had come to an end eventually though and it was far too soon in her opinion. From the signals she was getting from her connection with Aang, it seemed like he didn't want it to be over either. He did have a job to do though.

"Second thoughts about meeting Tetsu," she raised an eyebrow at him knowingly.

"Well I wouldn't mind a few more songs…" Aang drew off thoughtfully.

"We can always dance some more later…it's probably time that you met Tetsu though, before he has anything important to do," Katara told him.

"Oh, so now you want me to go?" Aang feigned a look of hurt.

"Don't give me that," Katara laughed, "Just come find me once you're done okay?"

"Alright," Aang sighed. He gave her a quick peck on the lips, which was about as much as they could do in a party like this, before leaving her to find Tetsu in the crowd of people that had gathered in the palaces ballroom.

Katara watched him go, giggling silently to herself when he struggled to push through the crowds. Once he was out of sight, she also made her way off the dance floor trying to think about what to do. It took some time but she finally found Suki sitting in a table in the corner of the room with Sokka and Mai. There were other tables filled with people and that seemed to be the dining area. Zuko wasn't there but Katara figured he was meeting with some important officials in the room.

She saw her brother eye her curiously as she walked over to them.

"Hey sis," he greeted, "Where's Aang?"

"We figured he should meet the new Earth King," Katara explained to the group, sitting down in an empty seat at the table.

"So he ditched you huh?" Sokka raised an eyebrow and a few seconds later he felt Suki's elbow jab into his stomach roughly resulting in him letting out an audible grunt as he turned to his girlfriend in surprise, "What was that for?"

As the couple bickered, Katara just rolled her eyes and turned to Mai who was looking at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry," the Fire Nation women said, pushing the sound of Sokka and Suki's bickering to the back of her head, "Zuko has been running around meeting with officials all night too. You're lucky that Aang is only meeting with one."

"He said it wouldn't take too long," Katara shrugged, "I just need to occupy myself till he's done."

"Well you've come to the right place," Mai jerked a thumb over to Sokka, "He still never shuts up."

Katara let out a laugh, "I'd know that better than anyone. You get used to it...eventually."

"Well that moment couldn't come soon enough," Mai responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The two fell into silence after that. Katara just sat there and listen to her brother talk to Suki, their previous bickering having died down. Mai just leaned back in her chair, studying the nails on one of her hands, looking about as bored as she was.

Katara spent the time though trying to think of something to do for Aang's birthday. One thing she knew with Aang was that he didn't put much value on material possessions. Anything physical would be out of the question…at least if she wanted to make him really happy. His previous comment about just spending the whole day with her was probably exactly what she should do for him but then again, they usually spend the whole day together anyway. She felt like she needed to do a little extra for his birthday…something special and it didn't take long for the idea to pop into her head. It was something that she was sure that Aang, and her for that matter, has wanted for a long time. The only thing was making sure she did it right…

"Hey Mai?" Katara returned her attention to the older girl questionably.

"Hmm," Mai hummed, turning her attention to her nails on her other hand.

"You're married to Zuko right?" Katara questioned, twirling her hands together.

"So I hear," Mai responded in amusement at her younger friend's behavior, "We got married last week remember?"

"Well do you think you could…give me some…advice?" Katara asked slowly.

Raising her eyebrows, Mai finally turned her attention away from her nails and looked at Katara in surprise. Katara had never come to her for advice before…this was a little new. After a few seconds, Katara looked away from Mai and she felt a light blush rise to her cheeks.

"I suppose I could," Mai said at last, drawing Katara's attention back to her, "Do you really want to talk about it here though?"

"Well…no, I guess," Katara bit her lip thoughtfully before speaking again, "Would you be okay if we just did something together tomorrow…and we can talk about it then?"

"Sure why not," Mai shrugged, "Zuko and I aren't heading back to the Fire Nation for another two days so I need something to do," she paused and glanced over at Suki, "We could maybe even bring her along to if we can get her away from Sokka."

Suki turned to them when she heard herself mentioned, "Wait, what are you two talking about?"

Katara opened her mouth to speak but Mai beat her to it.

"Katara and I decided to do something together tomorrow," Mai explained, "Want to join?"

"Sure," Suki smiled and turned her seat to face them, "What're we doing?"

Katara and Mai exchanged glances before Katara spoke up a little sheepishly, "We haven't actually got that far into it yet but we could toss some ideas around."

Before Suki could say anything, Sokka swiftly got up from the table.

"Well if that is what the topic is going to turn into here then I'm out," he explained as he walked away to find something else to do at the party, "You three have fun planning your girl's day out."

Mai watched him walk away for a few seconds before regarding the other two girls questionably, "Did I miss something?"

"Don't worry," Suki waved one hand nonchalantly, "He's just mad that he doesn't have anyone's attention anymore."

"Well that's my brother for you," Katara said exasperated, earning small laughs from her friends. She laughed with them for a few seconds before once again putting her focus back to where it had been, "So anyways, about tomorrow…"

* * *

><p>It must have taken him ten minutes to find Tetsu in the crowd of people but finally, the new Earth King came into Aang's sight. He was sitting at what appeared to be a bar at a less crowded side of the room, talking with a few Earth Kingdom nobles. As Aang made his way over to him, he noticed that the new King appeared to have recognized him, and he was greeted with a welcoming wave to come over and talk.<p>

"Gentlemen, would you please give me a moment," Aang heard Tetsu say as he got closer. The nobles bowed respectfully and walked off and the next thing the young Avatar knew, Tetsu was gesturing for him to sit down.

Aang took the invitation hesitantly, suddenly very nervous, and sat down on the empty stool next to Tetsu.

"I was wondering when I would be finally able to meet you Avatar," Tetsu bowed his head to him, "I've heard much about you."

"Well I hope what you heard has been good," Aang rubbed the back of his neck a little nervously, knowing full well that his image could already be damaged in Tetsu's eyes, courtesy of General Howe. The Earth King quickly caught what Aang was thinking however.

"You have nothing to worry about," Testu assured him, turning to take a sip from the drink that he had sitting on the bar table, "I am well aware of the Council of Five's opinion of you. I have spoken with them extensively about it," he paused as he took another sip, "However, I was an advisor for Kuei and he spoke very highly of you and I must value his judgment. Whatever problems you have with the Generals is not a concern to me. In my eyes, you are just as capable as any other Avatar has been…maybe even more so given how much you have accomplished at such a young age."

"Thanks, that means a lot," Aang let out a sigh of relief. _Maybe this would be so bad after all…_

Tetsu spent the next few seconds finishing his drink before setting the glass down and putting his full attention on Aang, "To tell you the truth Avatar, I feel that the Generals are being too tough on you. You are human after all, just like the rest of us. Expecting you to simply allow the love of your live to die…that's simply isn't right in my opinion."

Aang's eyes widened in surprise, he really wasn't expecting Tetsu to be this…friendly. He expected to be treated like General Howe had been treating him, "Well…I could never do that to her and I made that clear to the Five Generals."

"I'll deal with them," Tetsu assured, "Things will change."

"Thank you your majesty," Aang bowed his head once again.

"Please," the Earth King waved his hand dismissively, "No need to be so formal. The one thing that I have always hated about politics and nobility is that everyone is so serious and uptight all the time. I have found that a looser and friendlier environment better benefits all of those involved. So really, just call me Tetsu, Avatar."

Aang smiled and nodded agreeably, "I go by similar ideas. I'd prefer Aang as well; I'm not too fond of people treating me differently just because I am the Avatar."

"Understandable," Tetsu smiled back while motioning for the bartender to come over, "Would you like anything to drink Aang?"

"Actually, I'm fine," Aang held his hands up in front of him apologetically, "I promised Katara that I wouldn't take any longer than necessary."

"Very well," Tetsu nodded, taking another glass that the bartender handed to him, "I have some things to catch up on anyway and a lot of work to do. Enjoy the rest of the party."

"I will," Aang responded.

Tetsu tilted his head towards him in a way of farewell before turning away. Aang just sat there for a few moments and watched him go, still shocked at how the meeting had gone. One thing was certain; he was relieved that Tetsu was one his side.

A few moments later, he got up and began his search for Katara. However, unlike Tetsu, it didn't take him long to find her. Their spiritual connection made sure of that. He just followed what his heart told him and sure enough, she quickly came into his site, and she appeared to be talking to Suki and Mai. Looking off to the side, he also saw that Hakoda was walking over to the group of girl's and he was quickly reminded that he needed to talk with the Watertribe Chief. Looking back at Katara and seeing that she seemed to be enjoying herself, Aang decided that now would be as good of a time as any. Before Hakoda could reach Katara and the other two girls, Aang intercepted him and Hakoda greeted him with a smile.

"Aang, I was wondering where you were since you're not over there by Katara," he nodded at the group of girls.

"I went to meet with the new Earth King," Aang explained, "But there is something I need to talk to you about as well."

"Of course, you know you can talk to me about anything," the older man told him.

Aang bit his lip and looked around the room, "Privately."

Hakoda raised his eyebrow curiously and rested a hand on the airbender's shoulder, "Let's find our way out of here then shall we."

Aang smiled gratefully as Hakoda held his shoulder gently as he led them to the ballroom's exit. Aang didn't mind the contact. It reminded him of a way that a father would treat his son.

_Fitting, I'll be his son-in-law if he allows me to marry Katara, _Aang thought to himself. That thought brought a smile to him though as he allowed Hakoda to lead the way. Aang had never really been part of a true family and becoming part of one would mean a lot to him. He just had to hope that Hakoda gave permission for him to marry Katara.

Aang shook the thoughts from his mind and focused on the task at hand as he noticed that Hakoda stopped on a patio overlooking the palace garden.

"So what is it that you need to talk to me about Aang?" Hakoda asked him gently.

"I just…" for the second time that night, Aang found himself nervous but he knew how important this conversation was and he needed to do it right. Aang walked over and leaned on the railing of the patio and looked out at the various plants that the garden held. It was dark so he couldn't see any of them that well but it was enough to let him focus on something else for a few seconds to get his head straight.

Hakoda walked up and stood beside him, waiting patiently and knowing that whatever his daughter's boyfriend had to say was important. His nervousness also clued him in on what the upcoming discussion would be about and Hakoda smiled to himself knowingly. He had been in a similar position after all. Once he figured it all out, he knew why Aang was having trouble finding the words to say. The Watertribe Chief just simply looked out to the garden with the younger man beside him, letting him have all the time he needed. It turned out that he didn't need that much longer.

"I love your daughter more than anything," he finally said shakily, turning his head to meet Hakoda's gaze, "She was the first thing I saw when I awoke from the iceberg and she is one of the only people that really understands everything that I have had to go through. I owe her everything…and all I want is for her to be happy. I can't even imagine living without her anymore…"

He drew off thoughtfully, looking off into the distance; remembering everything he and Katara had been through together. Hakoda nodded at him to continue and Aang did, feeling much more confident than before.

"What happened to her and I in the desert a month ago got me thinking. We almost lost each other and I never want either of us to go through that kind of pain again. So with you permission," Aang paused, reaching into his robes to pull out and reveal to Hakoda the betrothal necklace he had made, "I'd like to ask her to marry me."

Hakoda gazed at the necklace that had been made for his daughter and he could tell that Aang had put a lot of effort into it. He noticed the Avatar's gaze shift down to the floor as his nervousness returned.

Knowing that Aang was expecting an answer of some kind, Hakoda reached out and closed Aang's hand around the betrothal necklace, causing the airbender to look back up at him in surprise.

"It would be an honor to have you as my son-in-law Aang," Hakoda told him, "And I know that Katara will be very happy with this."

"Really?" Aang said hopefully, a wide smile forming on his face.

"I'm sure of it."

Aang let out a long breath, letting all of the tension escape his body which drew a quick laugh from Hakoda.

"Though I've got to say Aang," Hakoda said, nudging the younger man gently, "I expected that question much sooner."

"Oh well, I've thought about it before," Aang tucked the necklace back into his robes before explaining hastily, "But Watertribe customs say that you have to be sixteen so I was waiting until I reached that age which is in a few days actually so I was planning on asking her then…"

"I figured as much," Hakoda nodded understandingly, "I am happy that you are willing to respect our tradition but it is Katara's _and _your relationship. We have as much of a need to respect your traditions as well. Remember that."

"Really the only thing the Air Nomads went by was that when it came to love; do what you heart tells you," Aang shrugged, "That meant for any aspect of the relationship."

"Sounds good to me, you two have control over what you do in your relationship," Hakoda told him, "Sokka and I don't dictate it. Katara is old enough to make her own decisions now."

"Wait," Aang said, thoughts popping into his head as to what Hakoda could be implying, and he rose a questioning eyebrow "Are you saying it's okay if we…"

"If you're that comfortable with each other then yes," Hakoda interrupted gently, "I've noticed how close you two have gotten to each other. I can see it whenever you look at her and when she looks at you."

Aang blushed and shifted on his feet a little, "Well thanks for the blessing…not really what I was expecting but still."

Hakoda just laughed for a few good seconds before speaking calmly, "Well I think I have said all that I need to. Let's head back?"

Aang nodded, still a little embarrassed that Hakoda knew how far he and Katara had gone and how far they wanted to go. Still, it was nice that he was accepting of it.

Once they got back to the party, Aang parted ways from Hakoda and found Katara over by the same table the she had been at before. Except this time, Suki and Mai were both gone. Katara instantly perked up from her bored posture when she saw him however.

"Well that took a little longer than I expected," she told him once her reached her.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Aang reached a hand out to help her up from her seat, "I saw that you were talking with Suki and Mai so I decided to have a talk with your dad."

Katara's face suddenly turned into a look of confusion and Aang quickly explained.

"It's nothing bad," Aang said, squeezing her hand assumingly, "Just some things that a guy needs to talk to his girlfriend's father about."

"Well I hope everything went okay…," Katara drew off, her eyes gazing right into his as if looking for more answers.

"It's part of the secret we were talking about earlier," he explained.

"Hmm," Katara hummed, "I'll leave it alone then, as long there is nothing wrong between you and my dad."

"Things are great actually," Aang assured her before deciding to change the subject and he gave her a playful smile, "Anyway, I seem to remember owing you a few more dances?"

Katara gave him a teasing smile back and reached a hand up to tap a finger on his nose, "And it's a good thing you didn't forget."

Aang just laughed, batting her hand away gently before leading her back to the dance floor; eager to spend some time with her again.

* * *

><p>Tau sat with his back against the wall in his cell, feeling better than what he had been during the last month. Mostly, prisoners here got food once per day. However, around midday, the same, golden eyed guard had returned and given him some more to eat.<p>

Tau didn't know how the guard, or imposter rather, was doing this without the other guards noticing but he was sure there was some "behind the scenes" thing going on that Tau didn't know about. Typically, he didn't like being unsure of things but this mysterious man was on his side. He was certain that everything would be explained eventually, he just had to be patient. Besides, anyone that was willing to help him out of this place could be trusted at least to some degree.

Did that guard want to help him escape though? Tau had yet to really talk to him to understand his true motive. At the same time, what else would this guy want? Tau would be willing to bet anything that this man's goal was to help him escape prison, the real question was; why?

Before Tau could contemplate it any further, he once again heard the familiar footsteps come down the hall. He simply just turned his head to the door and waited and sure enough, a tray of food slid into the cell a few moments later. One side of Tau's lip quirked into a small smile and his eyes darted up to meet the golden ones of the imposter. The man gave Tau a respectful nod before turning away.

"I hope the food is to your liking," Tau heard him say as the guard walked further from his cell, "I hear the rice is especially good."

Tau couldn't help but to raise his eyebrows at the oddity of the whole situation before picking up the tray and placing it on his lap. He didn't eat it quite yet and instead he spent several seconds regarding it curiously.

The rice…why did the guard point that out? Rice wasn't exactly something that someone would call a highlight of their meal. Tau took the fork that had been placed on one side of the tray and prodded the top of the rice that was sitting in a small cup. He wasn't really sure why he did it but he knew there was something that he hadn't fully realized yet. Eventually, he dug the fork into the cup, deciding to just simply eat it and see what happens. The fork didn't go too far into the cup before it hit some solid and Tau's eyes widened briefly in surprise.

Wanting to see what the fork hit, he used the utensil to scoop the rice out of the cup until a small circular object appeared. Curiously, Tau set the fork off to the side and reached down to pick the object up and studied it.

He didn't really know what the meaning of it was supposed to be and he had no idea why the guard would give it to him. He knew what it was from though. It came from that Pai Sho game that was rather popular among people. Tau didn't really care for it, he had never been good at that game, but he understood it well enough to know that the piece he was holding was very rare.

It was a White Lotus tile.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, not really much else to say this time for the author's note. I know I usually respond to peoples reviews and all that and I realized yesterday...I did really respond to nearly any of the reviews I had gotten last week. Thing is, I am a lot busier now then I was when I was posting Reawakening. If you don't get a review reply, its nothing personal...really. <strong>

**Anyways, as always, let me know what you think.:)  
><strong>


	3. Unexpected

**Sorry that this is being posted later then usual. I tried my best to get it posted earlier but clearly...that didn't happen.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar**

* * *

><p>"You actually got Mai to do something?"<p>

Katara and Suki laughed for a few seconds before Katara regarded her boyfriend seriously, "Yes Aang. We're just going out a few hours, it's not like we asked her to go camping for a weekend."

"Still," Aang shrugged, sitting down on one end of the couch in their home's main room, "Mai actually agreed to something…what did you do, bribe her?"

"I didn't do anything," Katara laughed good naturedly at him, "I just asked her, nothing else to it."

"You'd better believe it Aang," Sokka told him, regarding the airbender from the other end of the couch, "I was there. Mai and Katara turned nuts when they thought of it and of course Suki had to join in once they asked her."

Both girls glared at him before Suki finally put her attention back to Aang, "That's not exactly how I'd put it, but Mai did seem happy at the idea of it…"

"Maybe she's just expanding herself," Sokka shrugged, "I mean, I'm sure someone can only stay dull and gloomy for so long. It has to end sometime right?"

"Anyways," Katara rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore her brother's comment, "We just thought it would be nice to have a girl's day out for a change."

"Huh, funny," Aang eyed her suspiciously, "I was feeling that there was a little more to it than that."

Katara just snorted, remembering that once again, her spiritual connection with Aang made it difficult to get anything past him. It's not like that was a bad thing however, it kept them honest with each other. Still, that didn't mean she had to tell him everything.

"Well you have your little secret and I have one of my own," Katara smirked as she moved so that she was standing over him, "You'll find out soon enough."

"This is about my birthday isn't it?" Aang guessed, looking up at her.

"Hmm, maybe, that's for you to find out," Katara shrugged, before bending down to kiss his cheek, "I'll see you later okay?"

Aang opened his mouth to respond but Sokka beat him to it, "Okay, just stop with the affectionate looks and kisses."

Aang and Katara turned their heads to see that Sokka was looking a little annoyed. Katara rolled her eyes and just to prove a point that he couldn't tell her what she could, and couldn't, do with Aang, she turned her attention back to her boyfriend and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

Sokka scowled at them as his sister turned to leave with Suki and he just watched them go until the front door shut. Sokka just shook his head and turned to Aang, who was wearing a small smile on his face.

"And what are you smiling about?" the watertribe warrior questioned, though he already knew the answer.

"What?" Aang finally took his eyes off the front door and looked at Sokka sheepishly, "Uh…nothing…just you know…thinking."

"That is what you always say," Sokka deadpanned.

Aang just laughed a little as he reached a hand up to scratch the side of his head, "Yeah well…I actually have something to work on," he said, standing up and walking to the hallway where the bedrooms were, "I'll be in my room if you need me."

"Wait, what could you possibly be working on?" Sokka questioned, turning himself around on the couch so he could looked down the hallway Aang had gone to. Aang had already gotten into his room though and Sokka was sure that the young Avatar didn't hear him. He sighed upon realizing that everyone had found something to do for the day except for him.

_Well, _he thought, _I suppose I could just sharpen my boomerang all day._

* * *

><p>For something that had the ability to turn into a complete disaster for her, Mai had to admit, the day had been going pretty well. She had met Katara and Suki in front of the Fancy Lady Day Spa. Katara had told them that she had gone there before with Toph many years ago and it was said to be the best place in Ba Sing Se for this type of thing. Mai had to agree with that, she was used to being treated like royalty and here…she was treated like royalty. That was enough to make her tolerate any place.<p>

She and the other two girls had just finished relaxing for a bit in the sauna, and the plan after that had been for them to take a mud bath but Mai had quickly put a stop to that. She had to draw the line somewhere and mud baths weren't her idea of a relaxing time. So instead, they decided to spend the reminder of their time at the Spa resting in a Jacuzzi, which was heated the same way that the sauna was. Essentially, they would toss a few hot rocks into the bath which would heat the water. It was something new that the Spa had come up with after the One Hundred Year War ended. The Spa had emulated it from the Fire Nation.

The three girls had stripped down to their undergarments and relaxed into the warm water. They had been there for a few minutes by now and Mai had to admit that this was probably her favorite part of the day.

"Well this is nice," Suki commented, "It's a shame that we never thought of doing this before."

"It could be worse," Mai shrugged, "Not nearly as bad as what I was expecting at least."

"Oh come on," Suki rolled her eyes and shifted herself a little closer to Mai so she good give her a gentle nudge, "You know you like it. Just admit it."

Mai gave the former Kyoshi Warrior a rather annoyed look before she let a small smile form on her face, "Okay, maybe just a little."

"Well I suppose this is something you're used to right?" Suki guessed, "You probably get to do something like this all the time back in the Fire Nation."

Mai nodded, "Except for back in the Fire Nation I don't have to pay for it. Sure, we got a discount for coming here but I could always get treatment like this back home for free. Still, I suppose the added company isn't that bad. Although it would probably be a little better if she said something every now and then."

Mai had finished her last sentence by pointing an accusing finger at Katara who had been sitting on the opposite side of the Jacuzzi. Suki looked at the watertribe girl and she looked like she was in deep thought. Her head was tilted downwards and her finger was drawing small circles in the water. It seemed as if she didn't even know Suki and Mai were there and it quickly came to Suki's attention that her friend had been acting like that for a good part of the day.

"Hey Katara?" Suki questioned, drawing the other girls blue eyes to her, "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Katara tilted her head back down, watching as her finger continued to trace circles in the water, "I'm just thinking."

"About what?" Suki raised an eyebrow.

When Katara didn't answer, Mai questioned further, "I'm assuming that it has something to do with what you wanted to talk to me about last night?"

Before Katara answer Suki turned to Mai curiously, "What are you talking about?"

"Katara wanted to speak to me for some advice last night," Mai explained, shrugging one shoulder, "That's how this whole thing started."

"Oh…" Suki breathed out, looking back over to Katara, "You know you can talk about anything right…if you're embarrassed…"

"No it's not that," Katara interrupted, shaking her head, "I just don't know how to really explain it."

"Well try to anyway," Suki offered, scooting over to rest a hand on Katara's shoulder encouragingly.

"Well," Katara started, "Aang's birthday is in a couple of days…"

"Please don't tell me you're going to ask us to come up with a birthday gift for him," Mai deadpanned, causing Katara to glare at her briefly before she looked away and bit her lip a little nervously.

"It's not really a birthday present…Aang has never really put much value on physical possessions," Katara explained, bending some water in the air to occupy herself as she spoke, "He just wants us to spend the day together and that's easy enough to do. There is a lot to do in this city. But…I want to do something more than that."

"So what were you thinking of doing?" Suki asked simply.

"Well he is turning sixteen…and that also happens to be the marrying age for the Southern Watertribe…" Katara drew off, letting the water she was bending fall back into the Jacuzzi.

"So what?" Mai questioned once she realized the younger girl wasn't going to say any more, "Are you afraid that he doesn't want to marry you or something?"

Katara smiled and shook her head, "I know he wants us to spend the rest of our lives together…I want that to but," Katara paused and a slight pink hue rose to her cheeks, "Would it be weird if I asked him to marry me?"

Suki and Mai exchanged glances before Mai spoke up again, choosing her words carefully, "Well that is not really the norm, the guy is the one that is usually supposed to ask that but the girl doing it is not completely unheard off."

"But it really shouldn't matter who asks it right?" Katara asked, twirling a stand of her hair around her finger, "The end result is the same and if we both love each other then why not?"

"There is no problem with that at all," Suki assured her, squeezing her friends shoulder gently as she realized that Katara felt a little insecure about this, "I think it's great that you are thinking about doing that."

"You don't think Aang would be offended do you," Katara asked her nervously.

Suki drew her head back and regarded her, "What would he have to be offended about. He'd be ecstatic Katara, you know that."

Katara smiled, feeling a little better, "I don't really have anything to give him though. The only think that is really supposed to be given away during a proposal is the betrothal necklace, and Aang would just have to make that afterwards I suppose."

"Who says you needed to give him anything," Suki told her, "You just simply asking him would be enough to make him happy."

"Just make sure you don't overcomplicate things if you do ask him," Mai told her, "When Zuko proposed to me he kept it between the two of us. He didn't throw a fancy party or anything like that. This may sound a little strange coming from me but…just make sure you say everything from the heart. Don't say something just because you think it'll make him happier. You have to mean it."

Suki laughed and raised an eyebrow, "Who knew that you were an expert on all this Mai?" she teased.

Mai couldn't help but let out a small laugh with her before shrugging, "I know more then I let on."

"Well it helps," Katara spoke up, looking at the Fire Nation women thankfully, "Thanks Mai…you to Suki. I know what I'm going to do."

"No problem," Mai answered, leaning back on the edge of the Jacuzzi, "Besides, if I didn't know you better I'd think you and Aang were already married. You two act like it."

Katara smiled, "Well we are really close in more ways than one… I wouldn't be too surprised if people thought we were already married to each other."

They fell into a brief silence before Suki spoke up once again curiously, "Wait, you said you two were close…how close have you actually gotten…physically, I mean."

Katara felt a deep blush form at her cheeks and she looked away from her friend, embarrassed from the question.

"It's okay, you don't have to answer that," Suki shook her head once she realized she may have crossed the line into a territory that wasn't any of her business.

"We haven't quite taken our relationship all the way yet," Katara answered a few moments later, "but we've gotten pretty close to it…it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to consider it once we're engaged," she finished meekly.

"Wouldn't that be breaking the celibacy laws of your tribe though?" Mai raised an eyebrow, "I thought the Watertribes were against doing _that _until you were married."

"Well they are not as enforced now," Katara explained, finding her embarrassment of the subject vanishing little by little, "And then there are Aang's own customs to think about. He said the air nomads just went by what their hearts told them. No waiting for some formal induction that dictated what they could start doing in a relationship. He said that couples were free to control what they did and when they were ready to do it…I kind of like that part."

"I'll bet," Mai snorted, "Zuko and I had to wait until we were married to do anything too seriously. The Fire Nation is pretty strict about those kinds of things. Zuko and I were married a week ago though so it's all better."

"Was it…" Katara started but then cut herself off quickly, not really sure if she wanted to ask. Mai knew what she was questioning though.

"Awkward?" Mai raised an eyebrow, seeing Katara nod in response, "Yeah, a little. The first time always is from what I hear but you get used to it…and it's worth it."

Katara felt the blush on her cheeks creep back full force but she didn't mind…it felt nice to finally talk about this with someone.

"Well you two are lucky that you have romantics as your partners," Suki crossed her arms, "I love Sokka but he can be a little thick headed sometimes."

"Did you really call Zuko a romantic," Mai sighed and shook her head, "You really don't know him that well do you? The only one of us here that can't deny that their partner is a romantic is Katara."

"What are you, jealous?" Katara looked between the two girls.

"No," Suki said, "Just pointing out that you're one lucky girl."

Katara just shrugged. Not that she didn't agree with them, but she was certain that they were referring to that fact that Aang was the Avatar. That wasn't why she loved Aang so much though. It was his personality and the way that he treated her.

Katara decided in that instant that she was going to propose to him on his birthday. There was no doubt in her mind. Who cares if it wasn't the norm? She loved him, and nothing was going to stop her from showing him that.

* * *

><p>"Mind telling me what you've been working on?"<p>

Aang looked up from the Betrothal necklace he had on his desk and turned his head to where Sokka was standing in his bedroom doorway.

"I'm not working on anything actually," Aang told him.

"Aang you've been in here for hours," Sokka walked into the bedroom, "You had to have been working on something."

"You're right, I was working on something," Aang told him, slipping the betrothal necklace into his robes before Sokka could see it, "It's all finished now."

"Oooookay," Sokka drew out before pausing to see if Aang was going to show it to him. The Avatar didn't budge however so Sokka just decided to ask, "Can I see it?"

Aang opened his mouth instantly to say 'no' but quickly stopped himself. Would it really be a bad thing if Sokka saw what he had made for Katara? Sure, Sokka hadn't always been the most accepting of their relationship but he was her brother…he deserved to know. Slowly, without saying a word, Aang reached into his robes and pulled out the betrothal necklace, letting it dangle from his hand so Sokka could see it clearly.

Sokka stepped forwards to get a closer look and his eyes widened once he realized what it was. He reached out to take it, Aang didn't argue, and examined it as it rested in the palm of his hand. He noticed the intertwined designs of the Watertribe and Air Nomad symbols on the yellow pendant before looking back up at Aang not knowing what to think.

"This is a betrothal necklace," he stated, as if he needed to hear the words to believe it.

"Yeah," Aang answered, staring down at his hands in his lap as Sokka stood above him.

"When were you going to tell me about this?" Sokka asked, staring down at the younger man accusingly.

"I suppose I was going to eventually…," Aang started.

"After you already proposed to my sister," Sokka finished for him.

Aang wasn't sure if he was just hearing things but Sokka sounded a little hurt and he sighed, looking up at his older friend apologetically, "I'm sorry Sokka. I just…you haven't always really been that supportive of our relationship. If it makes it any better, your dad gave me permission last night to ask Katara when I was ready to. I wasn't going to just propose to her behind everyone's back."

"It's alright Aang," Sokka said quietly, handing him back the necklace before moving to sit on the bed and rest his forehead against his hands, "I suppose it is kind of my fault. I understand why you wouldn't tell me."

Aang got up from his seat at the desk and walked over to sit next to Sokka as his friend spoke up again.

"I haven't really given you two much reason to trust me with your relationship have I?" Sokka asked, but he didn't wait for Aang to answer before continuing, "I'm always teasing you two, arguing with you over what you shouldn't be doing…that's not really how I feel about it though."

Sokka turned his head and gave Aang a serious look, "You have to understand that before you came along I was the most important guy in Katara's life…she looked up to me. All that changed when she met you and ever since you two have gotten together, she and I have been drifting farther apart. There are some days where she and I only say a few words to each other…"

"I'm sorry Sokka," Aang spoke up before Sokka could say anything else, "I didn't realize…"

"You have no reason to apologize," Sokka held up his hand to stop him, "You make Katara happy and that is all I really want for her. I guess I am just jealous though and at first, that was why I gave you two problems with your relationship. Come to think of it, that is probably why she and I are drifting farther apart. If I had been more accepting of you two, then maybe Katara wouldn't act so distance from me."

"You don't know that," Aang told him.

"It's probably true though, and you know it," Sokka countered. He paused for a few moments before coming to a conclusion, "I promise, I'll do my best to lay off on you two, especially when you get engaged," he motioned at the necklace Aang still held in his hand, "For all intents and purposes, Katara is your responsibility now," Sokka laughed to himself for a few moments, "I mean, she is even representing your own culture now ever since she got all those Air Nomad clothes. If that doesn't tell me that she is dedicated to you then I don't know what will. You two will have my support from now on."

"Thanks Sokka…I don't really know what to say," Aang said, looking down at the necklace he held, "She means a lot to me. You know that right?"

"Yeah, I know," Sokka told him, "You make it pretty obvious."

Aang blushed and before he could say anything else, the two boys heard a knock on the front door.

"I wonder who that could be," Sokka questioned as he stood up to go answer it. Aang got up and followed him to the main room as well.

Sokka opened the front door to see Zuko and Iroh standing there, waiting patiently.

"Well it's a surprise to see you two here," Sokka said, his head having jerked back a little when he saw them, "Is something wrong?"

"No," Zuko answered, "Mai is doing that girl's day out with your sister and Uncle's tea shop closed early today. We just thought we'd drop by."

"We brought tea too," Iroh smiled, holding up a tray with four cups of tea that he had been holding, "May we come in?"

"Of course," Sokka stepped aside, letting the two men through the door, "We were just hanging out doing nothing anyway. It's always good to have more company."

Zuko and Iroh sat down on the couch while Sokka and Aang sat on two chairs that were opposite of the couch. Iroh set the tray he held on a table that was in between the couch and the chairs.

"It's Jasmine tea," Iroh explained as Sokka and Aang reached forward to take a cup off the tray.

The two boys took a few sips before Aang smiled at Iroh, "It's as good as ever."

"Glad to hear it," the old man replied, reaching to get his own tea.

The group spent a few moments drinking before Zuko spoke up, "So Aang, I heard that you met Tetsu last night?"

Aang nodded, "He was very different then what I expected…really informal."

"That's the feeling I got when I met him to," Zuko said, taking a sip of his own tea, "Still, it's nice to have someone that is not so uptight. You may not have to go to them but those Four Nation meetings…they can get really dull very fast with all the politicians around. I'm hoping that Tetsu being there now will make things a little better."

"Hey, if you need me to go to those then I can come but everyone told me that the Avatar's job is to just step in if things get out of hand, not play as an mediator for everybody," Aang defended himself.

"Its fine," Zuko assured him, "I don't think you would really be able to add much else to those meetings anyway."

"The thing that the nations still need to learn is compromise," Iroh jumped in, before adding solemnly, "I have a recent personal experience with that myself."

"Why?" Sokka questioned, "You always seem to solve problems in a fair way for everyone."

"It's a White Lotus matter," Iroh said regrettably, "As much as I'd like to, I can't really talk about it. It was hard enough to go back into hiding after our take back of Ba Sing Se and I have told you before, apart from me, there are two other members that hold my rank of Grand Lotus. So there are three of us, one from each nation. As I have told you before, we decide together on the actions that White Lotus will take. We are in charge."

"I don't see what the problem is though," Aang stated, setting his cup of tea back down on the tray, "If you are in charge and there are only two other members that you collaborate with to make your decisions, I don't get how compromise would be much of a problem. You all have the same interest right?"

"Correct," Iroh conceded with a nod, "We have the same goals but our methods for getting there may be different. Like I said, I can't say much more but let's just say that there have been a few decisions recently that I haven't been particularly happy with. I'm sorry, that's all I can say."

"Its fine," Aang said, smiling at the old Fire Nation General, "its undersan-ahh!"

Aang let out a loud gasp and was cut off when a sharp pain surged through is whole body. His head suddenly felt like it was going to explode and he barely registered his three friends jumping out from their seats in an effort to help him. He tried to stand up, to ignore the painful feelings that were spreading throughout his body and coming to a strong point at his head. He didn't stay up long though; the pain forced him back down. He felt someone catch him before he fell to the ground and he tried his hardest to keep his eyes open so he could see who it was. It was Sokka, and he was gazing at him with a look of alarm.

"What's happening to him," Aang vaguely heard Iroh say as Sokka gently laid him on the floor.

Sokka shook his head partly ignoring the question, "This has happened before but Katara has always been here to stop it…I don't know what to do."

"Here try this," Zuko said, handing Sokka a warm towel. Sokka hadn't even realized that the firebender had left to get the towel.

Sokka took the towel from Zuko gratefully and rubbed it against the weakened Avatar's forehead. That didn't seem to help though as Aang still flinched and let out audible gasps of pain. His eyes were barely even open.

Sokka noticed that his lips were moving slowly and he leaned closer to the airbender so he could hear what he was saying.

"Katara…" Aang forced out weakly.

That was all Sokka needed to here and he stood up, "I'll go find her Aang. Trust m-"

He stopped talking almost instantly when Aang's tattoos suddenly glowed a bright blue as if he was in the Avatar State. It didn't stay like that however. His tattoos flashed violently as Aang's body began to jerk uncontrollably like a seizure and Iroh and Zuko both knelt down to hold the Avatar's body to the ground. The flashing light was blinding and they had to look away as they held him down. Then as quickly as it had started, it was all over. Aang's body became still and his tattoos stopped flashing the bright blue light as they returned to their normal color.

Iroh held up a hand to the Avatar's sweating forehead, finding it to be unusually hot.

"Go find you sister," Iroh looked up at Sokka, who was staring at his now unconscious friend in shock, "Zuko and I will stay here with him."

Sokka could only nod in response as he quickly turned to run out of the house, one question repeating itself in his mind:

_What just happened?_

* * *

><p>Katara suddenly felt a feeling of urgency as she and the other two girls walked back home. She didn't know what it was but her spiritual connection with Aang was telling her that something was very wrong. She could always feel his presence, even when she was away from him like she was toady, and until know, their connection felt peaceful. Moments ago however, something changed and the emotions she was getting from him were jumping all over the place. It was confusing, and it distracted her from the conversation she had been having with her two friends. Their conversation had been something about her new air nomad clothes that she was wearing…she couldn't really remember exactly what it had been.<p>

"Katara are you alright?" Suki regarded her friend worriedly when she began to walk slightly faster then she had been before.

"Let's just hurry and get back," Katara told them sharply.

Mai and Suki exchanged confused glances but nonetheless picked up there pace to match Katara's.

A few minutes later, when they were about to reach the house, Katara spotted Sokka nearly sprinting towards them which worried her even more. Something must have been wrong…

Sokka reached them and spent a few moments gasping for breath before explaining to Katara quickly before she could even question him, "Something happened with Aang. He got one of those headaches and then his tattoos started flashing and then he blacked out and…" Sokka stopped himself, realizing that he was ranting before speaking again, "Just come on, he needs you."

Katara didn't have to hear anymore and she took off running towards their home, praying to the spirits that Aang was alright. It took several minutes but eventually she rushed in the front door and saw Zuko and Iroh kneeling next to Aang, who was now lying on the couch.

"We don't know what happened," Iroh told her standing up and moving away from Aang, pulling Zuko with him, "Sokka had the idea that you would."

Katara nodded and knelt by her soul mates side, not even bothering to question why Zuko or Iroh were there. As she gathered a small amount of water from the air, she barely even noticed Sokka, Suki, and Mai finally coming into the house. They all stayed back with Zuko and Iroh as Katara rested the water against each side of Aang's head.

The water glowed brightly, signifying its healing properties and Katara spent several seconds holding the water there. She also tried to coax Aang back to consciousness by using their connection but she wasn't sure how much work that was actually doing to help the situation.

One way or another, Aang's eyes opened a few moments later and Katara let out a sigh of relief, evaporating the water back into the air as she leaned forward to plant a grateful kiss on his cheek.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here earlier Aang," she told him regretfully, her eyes watering as she stoked his cheek with the back of her hand; she hated knowing how much pain that she could have taken away from him if she had been at his side sooner.

Aang just shook his head and struggled to sit up straight with Katara's help, smiling at her thankfully in return. He felt drowsy and he found it hard to focus on her even though her face was only a few inches away. Still, he managed to lean his head forward in an attempt to kiss her only for his lips to end up or her nose. Smiling slightly, Katara corrected this by tilting her head up and meeting his lips with hers. She held the back of his head with her hands to deepen it, forgetting about the audience they had standing just a few feet away, and focusing solely on the fact that Aang was alright.

"Um…I don't want to ruin the moment or anything," Zuko stepped forward motioning towards Aang, "but is he going to be okay?"

The couple broke the kiss and Katara blushed as she remembered that they were being watched.

"He just needs some rest," Katara told the rest of the group, feeling Aang's forehead leaning on her shoulder heavily and she wrapped an arm around him to support him there, "He'll be fine."

"I'd just hate to leave for the Fire Nation tomorrow if he was in trouble," Zuko explained.

"He'll be back to normal by then," Katara assured. She didn't know how she knew that but that was what felt right to her. Once again, she suspected it was their spiritual connection telling her that.

"Well here let me help you get him back to your room," Iroh offered, walking up to help Aang to his feet with Katara's help. The two draped Aang's arms over each of their shoulders as they practically dragged him to their shared bedroom. He was heavier than usual since he didn't have the strength to hold himself up but they managed to get him in the room and gently lay him down on the bed.

Aang gave them a grateful smile before closing his eyes, wanting nothing more than to just go to sleep even though it was only late afternoon.

Katara laid down beside him, pulling him against her and allowing him to nuzzle his head against her throat. Seconds later, Katara realized that he was already asleep and she just held him tighter, resting her cheek against his head.

"I assume you are going to stay here with him," Iroh asked in a whisper as he stood beside the bed.

Katara nodded in response, speaking in a hushed voice, "Tell the others please?"

"I will," Iroh nodded, wanting to keep his words to a minimum in fear that saying anything more would wake the exhausted airbender.

Katara watched him turn and leave the room before turning her attention back to Aang and she made a promise to herself. Until they knew why he was getting these headaches, she was not going to leave his side. She wasn't going to let him go through that much pain again; not when she could be there to heal it.

* * *

><p>Things were definitely starting to look up. It had been two days since that new guard had come and it was just now that Tau had begun to realize something. That guard had never put any of those chi-blocking herbs in his food. Little by little, Tau could feel his ability manifest itself inside of him one again. He was sure that his waterbending wasn't at full strength yet but he was also sure that if he could find any source of water, he'd be able to do something with it. Problem was, there wasn't any water around…at least there wouldn't be until the guard came to give him his dinner. There was always a cup of water to go along with the food.<p>

Tau had promised himself though that he was going to attempt to have a talk with the guard today. He needed answers as to what was going on. Not to mention an answer to what that white lotus tile meant. He was just keeping it in one of the pockets of his ragged, dark brown prison cloths. He still hadn't figured out what the purpose of it was however.

So, Tau just sat and waited until dinner time. It seemed to take forever, there wasn't much to do in the small cell of his, but eventually he heard the footsteps come down the hall, a tray was slid under the door, and then usually the guard would look at him through the door's window for a few moments before walking off. Tau made sure that last part didn't happen though. He slid the food tray to a corner of the cell before standing up and looking at the guard face to face through the window before the guard could leave. The guards golden eyes widened a bit, he obviously hadn't expected Tau to confront him.

"You and I need to have a little chat," Tau said in a tone that broke no argument. Tau knew that he wasn't in a place to negotiate but this guard wanted release him. That had to mean that there was something he wanted as well…which meant that Tau had something to use as a small bit of leverage.

The guard looked around, as if nervous that someone may over hear them but he turned back to look at Tau once he was satisfied that they were alone.

"We don't have much time," the guard said, "make it quick."

"Who are you?" Tau asked, staring the guard in the eye, "What do you want? Why are you helping me?"

"My name is Fei," the guard answered, "As for the other two questions…I don't have time to explain. To put it short and simple, that people that I work with want your help and we are willing to risk anything to get you out of here."

"Who do you work for then?" Tau said, pulling the white lotus tile out of his pocket and holding it up so the guard could see it through the window, "Does it have something to do with this?"

Fei nodded, "The group I'm with is an ancient society that has been, mostly, kept secret."

Tau scowled, not to happy with the vague answer. Fei was about to speak again before he paused as he heard a noise coming from the very end of the long hallway that they were in. More guards could be here any moment on patrol.

"Look," Fei shook his head, "We don't have much more time to talk. Once we get you out of here, we can play twenty questions all day long: deal?"

Tau thought for a few moments before he nodded, albeit a little reluctantly, "Just hurry it up. I've had enough of this place to last a lifetime."

"Just hold out a few more days," Fei told him, "We just need your bending back to full strength and then you're home free. You just worry about not drawing any suspicion. Act like the typical hopeless prisoner with no way out. I'll handle the rest."

Tau stared at Fei for several moments before nodding and turning back to sit down and eat the food that had been brought for him, "I'll be waiting," he said clearly.

He didn't know if Fei heard him but several moments later he heard Fei walking a little quicker then he usually did down the hall. Tau found out why when moments later, another guard entered the hall. It was the usual patrol. There was nothing surprising about it.

Tau ate a little bit of his food before regarding the cup of water on the corner of the tray curiously…it was time to see how much of his bending he had gotten back, if any. He didn't think he would actually be able to control the water yet, but still…

He raised one if his hands, and focused on the push and pull of the water in the cup. He stared at it deeply, watching for any sign of irregular movement. Sure enough, what happened brought a small smile to him.

Some of the water had spouted up and out of the cup, landing a few inches away from him. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Tau's smile grew as he sat back, eating the rest of his dinner in peace, knowing that in just a few days he would be out of here.

* * *

><p><strong>So I noticed when I was editing this one last time that this is the first time that Tau has talked in this fic. Just felt the need to point that out for some reason. <strong>

**See you all next Monday!**


	4. Aang's Birthday

**Okay, so I know this is a day late...I'm sorry. I was working on and off on it all day yesterday and I simply didn't have time to finish editing it completely. That being said, it won't happen again. However, I do have kind of bad news. I have had a really bad cold for the past 2 weeks or so and on top of that and my college classes...I have also had a kind of big personal live problem going on and frankly...its taken away my inspiration. Needless to say, I haven't been writing much at all for the past 2 or 3 weeks so I am not in the place I want to be right now with this fic. So, this is not a for sure thing yet but after I post chapter 5 next week...I might give this fic a one week break until I can get my act together. I hope you guys understand, hopefully I won't have to do that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar**

* * *

><p>True to Katara's prediction, Aang had gotten better once he woke up. In fact, it was like nothing had happened to him at all. They had gone and said their farewells to Zuko and Mai, who were returning back to the Fire Nation. Aang had then thought it would be a good time to discuss what he, Katara, Sokka, and Suki should do. They didn't have much of a reason to be in Ba Sing Se anymore and they were all ready to finally leave. Eventually, they decided that they would go back to the Southern Watertribe with Hakoda and they would be leaving the day after Aang's birthday. Until then, the group just went about their normal routine and soon enough, the day of Aang's sixteenth birthday had arrived.<p>

Katara had gotten up earlier than him for once so that she could make them both breakfast and so he would be allowed a few extra minutes to sleep. Now, she was carrying two bowls of soup back into their bedroom, careful to be quiet so she wouldn't wake him just yet. She set the two bowls on a nearby nightstand, before climbing back onto the bed, gazing at her still sleeping boyfriend thoughtfully. If all went as planned today, Katara realized he would be her fiance by the time the day was over. She smiled at the thought of that.

He was lying on his back, as he often did when he was about to wake up and Katara decided to give him just a few more minutes before she woke him. For the time being, she decided to just lie down at his side, using one arm to prop her head up while her other hand traced the contours of his face. She was probably doing that longer then she should of, the soup was going to get cold eventually, so eventually she thought that it was time to finally wake him.

"Aang," She said gently, the hand on his face moving down to shake his shoulder, "Aang wake up."

He murmured something that she couldn't quite understand, and she briefly saw his eyes open before they closed again. Determined to wake him, Katara did the one thing that she always knew he would respond to: she kissed him.

Sure enough, a few moments later she felt his lips start to move against hers and she kept the contact for several more second before pulling away, finding his grey eyes staring up at her softly.

"Happy Birthday," she told him, leaning back down to place a light kiss on his forehead.

Aang sighed contentedly as he sat up next to her, smiling, "Well it's off to a good start," he paused, noticing that she was already dressed in her now typical orange and yellow air nomad clothes in contrast to the her usual undergarments she slept in, "How long have you been up?"

"Half an hour maybe," Katara shrugged, reaching over to grab one of the bowls from the nightstand and handing it to him, "I made you breakfast."

Aang gladly took the bowl, feeling quite hungry even though he had just gotten up.

"Thanks Kat," he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, "I love you."

"Love you too," Katara replied, giving one of his hands a gently squeeze before grabbing the other bowl from the nightstand as they both began to eat. They were each sitting shoulder to shoulder with their backs against the back of the bed.

"So…" Aang started, trying to start some sort of conversation, "Is there anything planned for today?"

"Well Sokka and Suki went out," Katara answered him, "That gives us the whole day to ourselves. I bought two tickets for a play that I thought might be interesting. It starts in a couple of hours…"

"A play?" Aang questioned. They hadn't really attended very many plays and the last one was that Ember Island Players, which was a bad experience for him in more ways than one.

"Yeah," Katara said meekly, also suddenly remember the last play they went to…and how she had treated him during it. She was instantly scolding herself mentally. She should have known Aang wouldn't have the biggest fondness for plays, not after the last experience.

_Stupid Katara, _she thought in frustration, _Way to remind him of that on the day that you were going to propose to him. Perfect…_

It was funny, it had been a few years but it was still something that neither of them liked talking about, or being reminded of.

"We don't have to go," Katara suggested, once she noticed that Aang was in deep thought, "We could always find something else to do…"

"No, its fine," Aang shook his head and gave her a big grin, "Besides, I'm sure it'll be a different experience this time."

"You sure?" Katara questioned, she didn't want him to feel like he needed to do something he didn't want to on his birthday.

Aang nodded reassuringly, "It's a good time to replace the old, bad memory with a new, good one. I think it's something we both need to do. Despite our connection and everything, we have kind of unconsciously avoided going to plays ever since…well, you know."

Katara smiled, "You're right, it's time we moved on from that. Who knows, it might be fun."

"What is it about anyway?" Aang raised an eyebrow, setting his bowl of soup aside once he finished it.

"It's some historical play about the beginnings of Ba Sing Se," Katara told him, shrugging, "I don't know, I thought it would be kind of interesting."

"It sounds great," Aang assured her.

She just smiled as she stood up and took the now empty bowls of soup, "I'll be right back."

Aang figured she was just taking the bowls back to the kitchen to clean them out and he figured that meant he had a few minutes before she came back. He spent those minutes getting ready for the rest of the day ahead of him. Once he had gotten all dressed, he checked to make sure his betrothal necklace was still tucked safely in his robes. Once he was felt that it was, he let out a nervous breath as he sat back on the bed, knowing that he was going to ask Katara to marry him later. He briefly wondered if she was suspecting anything, but he didn't have time to dwell on it too much for Katara came back in the room.

"Like I said," she walked over to sit next to him, "We have a couple hours until that play starts. We're free to do whatever we want until then."

Aang couldn't help but notice the mischievous smile that was on her face and the light twinkle in her eye. Smiling back at her, and knowing exactly what was going on in her mind, he wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer to him, as their lips met in a soft, gently kiss.

As quickly as it had started, the kiss deepened and it led to another, and another, and another…

* * *

><p>True to what he had said earlier, Aang found the play to be much more enjoyable than the disaster he had seen a few years ago. Just like Katara had told him, the play was a historical fiction representation of how Ba Sing Se was first founded. Turned out, a previous Avatar had founded the great city and it served as the start of society for the Era of the Avatar that the world was now currently in. That meant the city had to be around for at least a few thousand years. Aang suspected that it had been a much different city back then. Something in the back of Aang's mind also reminded him that the Yanari had also been imprisoned a few thousand years ago as well. The time similarities were quickly pushed out of his head however. The Yanari's escaped was stopped. He didn't have to worry about them anymore.<p>

Learning about the ancient history wasn't the highlight of the play in Aang's opinion however. He and Katara were sitting on one of the balconies at the top of the room and it was nearly empty. They had spent the entire duration on it, cuddled up against each other, with her head resting on his shoulder. It was a nice contrast with what happened years ago and Aang knew they would for once be able to force that memory out from their minds. Overall, he had enjoyed the play and he was glad that Katara had come up with the idea of going to it. From what he was getting from their connection, she enjoyed it too.

It was lunch time once the play was over and they had quickly returned to their house for a few minutes. Aang had been surprised however when Katara presented a basket and suggested they have a picnic somewhere with just the two of them. After a few minutes of discussing where they should go, they both agreed to eat lunch at the shore of Lake Laogai. It was the only place in the city with a big body of water, which suited both of them nicely. Aang also secretly hoped they could water bend a little bit; it had been awhile since they had done that together.

Once they got to the shore of Lake Laogai, they removed their shoes and ate there lunch rather quickly. Katara then leaned up against him in a similar way that she had done during the play as she moved her bare feet through the sand. She like the feel of it, it wasn't something she was used to. Aang noticed that she seemed rather content and he gently wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her close to him. Neither of them really paid attention to how long they relaxed like that but Katara suddenly perked up after a good while, seemingly having an idea in her head.

She stood up and pulled a rather large stream of water from the air, "Think you could use a little practice?" she teased, moving the water in a slow circular path at her side.

Aang smiled, he wasn't sure if she had had the same idea as him or if she had been able to tell from their connection that he wanted to water bend but either way, he wasn't going to complain.

"Always Sifu," he bowed his head dramatically before standing up as she giggled at him for a few seconds.

She passed the water gently over to him and he caught it with his own bending before bending it around him and sending it back to her. It was their usually warm up routine and after a couple of minutes; Katara brought another stream of water from the air and sent it at them. They now had two streams to focus on and it was a constant movement of them pushing or pulling the water to where it needed to go.

Aang let his mind wander though. He had noticed that she didn't even pull the water out of the lake that was just a few feet away from them. She had just pulled it all out of the air. Sure it was something that she had been able to do for quite a long time but it was different now. She was able to pull water from the air as if the air was like any other body of water. It was a technique she had mimicked from Tau during their fight at the Southern Air Temple and though that was more than a month ago, he was still getting used to the fact that she was able to do it. It reminded him how far she had come since he had first met her. Then again, they had all changed quite a bit.

"Something on your mind?" Katara asked in slight concern once she noticed that Aang was in deep thought. She stopped the movement of the two streams of water and evaporated them into the air as easily as she had made them.

"Just thinking about what you're able to do now," Aang told her honestly with a small shrug.

"What? The Tau thing?" Katara questioned, once again pulling some more water out of the air.

"If that's what you want to call it then…yeah, the Tau thing," Aang watched her regard the water thoughtfully.

"You know," she said, sending the water back to dissolve into the air once again, "I don't even know how I learned to do it. I was just kind of able to."

"Maybe it was something that you were always able to do?" Aang suggested, "Like your healing ability. It just came to you when you needed it."

"Probably," Katara shrugged, "Do you want me to try to teach it to you?"

"I mean, that's not why I brought it up but," Aang smiled at the thought of her teaching him once again, "It couldn't hurt I suppose."

"No it couldn't," Katara agreed, "I haven't even taught you how to pull water out of the air yet though, let alone pull out as much as Tau and I are able to. It might take awhile for you to get the hang of it."

"Well you know me," Aang shrugged and gave her a smirk, "I'm a fast learner."

"I noticed," Katara rolled her eyes, remembering when she had first taught him waterbending and how frustrated she had been when he had caught up to her skill level so quickly.

"So, where do we begin?" Aang asked, waving his hand in their air like Katara had been earlier except this time, no water came out.

"It just doesn't work like that," Katara laughed, waving her own hand in the air to pull some water out as if to demonstrate if for him, "What you have to understand is that water is nearly everywhere. Even though you may not see it in the air, it's there and you just have to feel it. You have to be able to separate the water from the air and to do that, you have to feel where the water is," Katara paused for a second to think before adding solemnly, "That may be a little difficult for you since you are an airbender. I can just feel the water so it's easier for me to differentiate it from the air but you can feel both. You're going to have to be able to tell the difference between the two for this to work…"

"Oh…I never thought of that," Aang moved his hand through the air as if he were trying to find the unnoticeable traces of water that were floating around.

"Here take this," Katara offered as she sent him her own stream of water, which he quickly caught before looking at her for an explanation as to what to do with it, "Just focus on what that feels like to control compared to what the air feels like."

Aang nodded and spent the next several minutes moving the water in different directions with one hand while his other hand began to create a light current of air. Katara just stood a few feet away from him patiently while he focused on what he was doing. He took a lot longer then she thought he would but she didn't mind. As she had figured out a long time ago, she loved to watch him bend. Eventually however, he stopped creating the air current with his once hand and bent his stream of water back over to her.

"I think I can feel the difference," he told her.

She smiled and nodded for him to try it. He moved his hand in a small circle in the air in an attempt to pull the water out but nothing see-able happened. Katara did however feel a small disturbance and knew that he had shifted the water in the air a little bit, but not enough for any noticeable effect.

"You almost got it," she told him as he tried again, "Try to focus on it a little harder."

Aang just nodded as he directed his concentration at the task at hand and after a few more tries, he was able to pull a few droplets of water from the air. It wasn't much, but it was as good a start as any. He looked back at Katara who was beaming at him.

"I knew you could do it!" she congratulated, dropping the professional teacher act to run over to him to give him a quick kiss, "You'll get it eventually, I know you will."

"Can we keep practicing?" Aang asked hopefully, wanting to try to get the technique down a little easier.

"Of course," Katara told him, looking up at the sky to judge what time it was based on the location of the sun, "I have a place reserved for us to have dinner at but we don't have to be there for another couple of hours."

Aang smiled and nodded before his face suddenly turned into a look of worry, "I am assuming this is some fancy, upper ring restaurant right?"

Katara just nodded, knowing what Aang was going to ask.

"That is usually where all the nobles go," Aang continued, "And they usually always feel the need to talk to me…"

"I've taken care of that," Katara assured him.

"Really? How?" Aang asked, eyebrows raised.

"It's a surprise, you'll find out," Katara gave him a teasing smile before reaching out to give his hand a reassuring squeeze, "Trust me."

"I do," Aang smiled back at her. He would always trust her; there was never any question about that.

For the next several hours, Katara further taught Aang and by the end of it, he had been able to pull a few drops of water from the air without any effort at all. He still couldn't pull out a decent amount that could be any use to him but Aang seemed happy with his progress; Katara knew that she was. She knew that it was going to be hard for him to learn but as she led them to the restaurant that they were to have dinner at, she promised him that they would have more training sessions in the coming weeks until he had the rare waterbending technique mastered.

It turned out that the restaurant was not that far from the Earth King's palace and once they reached it, Aang recognized the name that was on the sign above the entrance of the building.

_Hunan Garden._

It was said to be the best restaurant in the city. Aang also remembered that someone had told him it was opened a few decades ago but a man going by the name of Hunan. Aang didn't know why 'garden' was part of the name but he was sure there was some reason to it.

Katara led him by the hand inside the restaurant where a man in an elegant green robe and a finely trimmed mustache was waiting for them.

"Avatar Aang, Master Katara," he bowed, recognizing them instantly; "It is good to have you here. If you'll please follow me, I'll show you to your seats."

They did as he requested and once they walked inside the main room, Aang saw why the restaurant had the word 'garden' in its name. There was a variety of plants everywhere. They must have come from all over the world. It was quite beautiful if Aang was honest with himself. Still, he noticed the restaurant was rather full and he was still unsure how he would be able to just have some time with Katara with all the nobles around.

That question was answered almost immediately however when the man they were following opened a door in the back of the room and led them up a few stairs where a completely empty room was waiting for them. There were a few lit candles scattered around the room, giving off a romantic atmosphere and the outer wall of the room had windows lined up all the way across, allowing them to see a garden with the same variety of planes that were inside of the _restaurant_. The biggest difference was that there was a pond in the center of it. Aang wondered how he never knew about it before but then he noticed that there were hills on all sides of it and the only way out to it was a door in the room that they were in. The restaurant must have owned it. Aang turned his attention away from the scenery when the man spoke up once again.

"I hope everything is to your liking Master Katara," he gazed at her expectantly, "We were very careful to make sure we met what you requested."

"You did great," Katara smiled and nodded, "Thank you."

The man simply smiled back before he bowed to them and walked off. There were about a dozen empty tables to choose from and the couple decided to sit down on one of the ones next to the windows. It was a small table for two and the seats were opposite of each other.

"Katara how did you arrange this?" Aang asked as they sat down, quite enjoying how things had turned out but at the same time, surprised at it all.

"You know that people are willing to do a lot for us because we ended the war," Katara explained, twirling a strand of hair around her finger nervously, "I know we don't usually take advantage of that but I figured that this was a special occasion…I hope that's alright."

"Its fine," Aang assured her, "Great actually. This whole day has been amazing."

"Yeah?" Katara questioned, smiling at him hopefully.

"Yeah," Aang nodded, reaching his hands across the table to grab hold of her own, staring into her eyes deeply "You don't know how much all this means to me."

Katara felt her heart flutter in her chest because of the look he was giving her but she didn't have time to respond as their waiter walked up to them and asked what they wanted for dinner. They each made their order: two glasses of water with the restaurants main vegetarian meal for the two of them. Aang had long since realized that Katara was beginning to grow accustomed to a vegetarian type diet so he wasn't surprised that she ordered the same thing that he did.

Once, the waiter was gone the two just sat back and talked. They reminisced about their past adventures and even talked a little bit about the future…their shared future, and Aang had to try his hardest to stop himself from asking her to marry him right then and there. It was when that thought passed through his mind that she seemed uncharacteristically nervous all of the sudden.

"Is something wrong?" he question, looking across the table at her in concern, "You seem nervous all of the sudden?"

"I could say the same thing about you," she countered back, obviously not wanting to tell him why she was feeling the way she was.

Aang blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, "I guess I am a little nervous."

"Why?" Katara tilted her head curiously.

Aang looked at her with an amused looked on his face, "I asked you first."

He had her there, and she shifted in her seat uncomfortably, knowing that she couldn't lie to him but also knowing that she couldn't tell him the truth just yet either. Luckily, the waiter came back at just that moment with their food and by the time he left, the couple had decided to drop the subject.

After a few moments of eating in silence, they went back to talking about their past adventures once again, although this time, it was more about things personal to them. The Cave of Two Lovers was a strong point in that discussion. Since they were talking a lot, it took them nearly half an hour to finish their meal and once they did, the waiter came back and took the empty plates from them and once again left the two alone; permanently this time.

Aang wasn't too sure what to do. This was usual the point where one would typically leave the restaurant but Katara seemed to have other plans and she didn't make him wait long to show him what those plans were.

After a couple of minutes of going through things in her head nervously, Katara stood up from her seat and grabbed Aang's hand, coaxing him to stand up as well. Aang gave her a questioning look but followed her request, allowing her to pull him out the door and into the garden that had been waiting outside.

"Wait, Kat," Aang said, looking around once he felt the soft grass beneath his feet, "I don't think we're supposed to be out here."

"Relax," Katara assured him, squeezing his hand tightly, "They're alright with it."

Aang nodded, realizing that Katara had planned to bring them out here and that she had probably gotten permission from the restaurant the same time she had made their reservations.

It was dark out, the moon was high in the night sky but Aang was still able to see clearly and he took the opportunity to look around at the variety of plants and flowers that surrounded them. Some of them he had never seen before. He turned his head to look at Katara, who was standing beside him holding his hand tightly with a small smile on her face, though he could also feel a lot of nervousness coming from her. She led them over to the small pond, sitting down at the edge of it and pulling him down with her.

Aang had no idea what she was planning or why she brought them out here but he had to admit that it was a peaceful setting. This would probably be the perfect place to ask her the question that had been plaguing his mind for the past month. Seeing that she was staring at the water in the pond, lost in deep thought, Aang slowly slid his hand up into his robe, feeling the betrothal necklace there. Taking a deep breath, he was about to pull it out when she suddenly turned her gaze away from the water to look at him.

"You know you mean a lot to me right?" She inquired, giving him a smile that looked rather shy. It was a look that he hadn't seen her with in quite a while.

"Of course," Aang answered, withdrawing his hand from his robe, deciding to hold off his proposal until she finished with whatever it was that she had to tell him.

"Do you know how much?" Katara slid one of her hands across the grass and grabbed hold of one of his own, lacing their fingers together tightly.

"Um…I know you love me," Aang answered, not really knowing how else to answer it. Frankly, he was surprised by the question.

"It's more than that," she told him gently, shifting herself so that her legs were stretched out with her feet dipping into the pond's water, "Before I met you, I didn't believe my life was worth anything. I had relied on my mom so much, I could never imagine her not being there…and after what happened, and once she was gone…I felt like I had lost everything."

Aang just listened to her, not really knowing where she was going with all this, but he made sure he heard every word. He gave her hand a squeeze when he noticed a sad look appear on her face.

"I had to grow up so fast and for years I felt like I had lost what the real meaning of life was. It felt like I was stuck in a nightmare. I went about the same routine every day, half the time I wouldn't even be paying attention to what I was doing. There were some days where I couldn't even recall what I had done the day before. My mother's death was never really something I was able to move on from," Katara lifted her free hand to wipe away a few unshed tears that had gathered in her eyes before smiling at Aang gratefully, "but then I met you and almost instantly, things began to look up. You brought me out of the trance I had been in for years and you showed me how to live again. As we began to know each other more and more, I felt that pain in my heart that I held over the loss of my mother begin to fade away and it was replaced with what had been there before: love. Love for you."

Katara paused before taking a deep breath, all to aware that Aang was watching her, eyes full of questions, "I can't imagine living on without you anymore. When I almost lost you in that desert a month ago, I was ready to give up on everything. I need you Aang. I need you in my life. You're the only one that stops me from receding back to how I used to be; lost and afraid. I don't ever want to feel like that again so," Katara felt her heart beginning to beat loudly in her chest and she felt a deep, noticeable blush rise to her cheeks, "Aang…would you marry me?"

Aang was almost instantly taken aback, his eyes widening in surprise. Wasn't he supposed to be asking her that? Then again, did it really matter who asked who? He didn't know how long it was he just sat there, staring wide eyed at her but when he felt a wave of panic wash over from their connection, he knew he had to do something before she took his silence the wrong way. Reaching back into his robes, he drew out the betrothal necklace he had made for her, grinning at her when her eyes widened hopefully when she saw it.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," he told her gently, feeling his eyes water as he felt like he was falling in love with her all over again.

Katara's breathing quickened and she finally allowed her own tears to fall as she suddenly lunged at him, pulling him into a tight embrace, feeling his own arms come around her in response. They sat there for several minutes as she cried tears of happiness into his shoulder and he couldn't help but join her. He knew that this was possibly the best moment of their entire lives.

"I love you so much," she whispered, squeezing him tightly against her.

"I love you too," he replied just as quietly, planting a soft kiss on the side of her neck.

She pulled away from him and gently took the necklace that he was still holding in his hand. It looked wonderful to her and she felt new tears form in her eyes as she gazed at it. Her eyes drifted over the orange ribbon before falling on the yellow pendant with the air and water symbols intertwined together. It seemed to glimmer in the moonlight and she looked up at Aang happily.

"Will you put it on me please?" she requested, holding the necklace back out to him while giving him a wide smile.

"With pleasure," Aang whispered, moving to sit down behind her once he took the necklace back from her. He was about to remove her mother's necklace before stopping, hesitant to remove that object that she held so dear to her.

Katara knew what he was thinking and she turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye, "It's alright Aang. Do it…please."

Aang nodded, and detached the ends of her mother's necklace and removed it from her neck, replacing it with the one he had made for her. Once she felt the betrothal necklace around her securely, she turned around to face him. Aang had to admit, as he suspected, the colors of the necklace fit her new air nomad clothes very well.

"What about this?" he handed her the necklace that had once belong to her mother.

Katara took it and gazed down at it thoughtfully, "This is really all I have left of her," she told him, brushing her fingers across the pendant thoughtfully, "but it belongs in the past…you're my future now Aang," she looked back up at him, "I'll keep it safe someplace and who knows, maybe I could pass it down to our first daughter."

Aang felt himself blush at what she was implying as she tucked her mother's necklace into the pocket of her robes. Once she turned her attention back to him however, Aang could no longer hold himself back and quickly took her back into his arms, crashing his lips onto hers.

She responded quickly, wanting to be as close to him as possible. She moved her lips against his frantically, feeling his tongue push itself into her mouth and brush against her own. His hands tightened their grip on her while her own cupped the side of his face, making sure that he couldn't pull away from her. She leaned back onto the grass beneath them, pulling him on top of her as she sucked gently on his tongue, causing him to produce a soft groan from the back of his throat.

Wanting to explore him further, she moved her hands to run up and down his back, before one of them settled to rest on the back of his head. She traced his arrow there, loving the feel of his soft skin. His hands began to do some exploring as well and she felt one rest on her hip while the other stroked her sides.

Aang broke the kiss that they had been holding; allowing them both to gasp for air, but Katara realized he wasn't done with her yet. He leaned back down, planting wet, opened mouth kiss across the side of her face, traveling down her neck and to her shoulder. Her breathing quickened as he began to suck on her shoulder, flicking his tongue across her skin every now and then. It felt wonderful to her but she wanted more…she needed more. From what she felt pressing against her thigh, she could tell that he need more to.

She took his head in her hands and brought him back up to meet his lips once again, bucking her hips up which caused them both to let out an audible moan. She then slipped her hands under his robes and stroked his bare back, lightly brushing her fingers against his sensitive scar. He let out another groan, moving one of his hands to brush up against the side of her breast, causing her to let out a gasp as she felt the contact through her clothing. She broke the kiss, gasping for air, seeing that he was doing the same. Their eyes locked, realizing at the same time that they both wanted the same thing but at the same time, they both knew that they couldn't do it here.

"Let's head back?" Katara asked him, knowing exactly what they were going to do once they got back to their home. She was ready though and they had already talked about it before. Besides, they were engaged, and right now, she wanted to give herself to him fully. It felt right, and she could tell that he was thinking the same thing.

Aang just nodded, not having the words to speak. He leaned down to give her one last, brief kiss, before pulling his new fiancé to stand up with him. Casting shy glances at one another, they walked back home hand in hand, both of them thinking of what was to come.

* * *

><p><strong>So just FYI, chapter five is just a lemon chapter. Don't expect much plot development. I decided to give the first lemon its own chapter just to make it stand out...and so that people that are uncomfortable with reading it can skip it easily. So yeah, lemon next week and I'll have more information about what I said in the opening author's notes.<strong>


	5. A Night To Remember

**Okay, so as I said last week...this chapter is just a lemon. If you are uncomfortable with reading lemons, feel free to just skip it because frankly...there's not really any plot development. ****That said, there will be more lemons in the fic later on but they will not ave their own chapter like this one does. This one only has its own chapter because its the first one...and because I somehow managed to make it 4500 words. Anyway, I've read my fair share of Kataang lemons and it seems like that for the most part, people either make them experts on making love...or they make them completely clueless. I tried to put my own lemon somewhere in the middle of that.** **You guys can be the judge as to whether I succeeded in that or not.** **Apart from that, all that I really have to say is that I am actually a little embarrassed to be posting this right now.**

**Disclaimer: And this is probably the reason I don't own Avatar.**

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><p>Katara felt her heart beating nervously in her chest as she and Aang walked into their home; careful to be quiet as to not wake Suki and Sokka, who were probably already asleep. She didn't know why she was so nervous but perhaps it was that this time, she knew what Aang and her were about to do. Sure, they had talked about it before; they had actually gone pretty far with their physical explorations of each other. All of those had taken place during the heat of the moment though. This wasn't the same. This was planned.<p>

It wasn't that she didn't want to make love to him; she wanted that more than anything. As they got closer and closer to their bedroom however, she found that she was a little afraid of what he might think of her. What if he didn't like what he saw? What if she disappointed him?

She felt from their connection that Aang was having the same problems that she was having, which oddly, made her feel a little more comfortable about the situation. More than anything however, she couldn't wait to be back in his arms once again.

Aang opened the bedroom door, leading them inside before closing the door behind him. He found that he wasn't able to do anything else however as Katara had suddenly pressed him against the closed door, crashing her lips on top of his as she gripped the front of his robes tightly. His arms wrapped around her waist in automatic response, pulling her tightly against him. He felt her tongue run across his bottom lip and he opened his mouth slightly, granting her access.

Katara didn't waste any time exploring his mouth. Her tongue ran across his inner lip and then to the insides of his cheeks, pleased with herself when she heard a soft sigh coming from the back of his throat. After a few moments of letting her explore, he stroked his tongue against her own, causing his fiancé to move her hands up to cup his face, deepening the kiss.

She felt one of his hands move a little lower, coming to rest on her butt, and she gave out a soft gasp of surprise when he gave it a gentle squeeze. Her breathing quickened as she unconsciously pressed herself closer to him, if that were even possible. It wasn't close enough for her liking however and when his hand began to rub her rear, she couldn't help but want more. She didn't even realize it, but her hands had subconsciously moved down to grasp the bottom of his robes, attempting to lift them up and over his head.

Knowing what she was trying to do, Aang reluctantly broke their heated kiss, and lifted his arms up which allowed her to easily remove the robe from him; revealing the skin underneath. Once that was taken care of, she once again captured his lips in hers as her hands began to run across his bare skin.

One hand remained on the back of his neck, holding him against her, while the other ran across his soft, yet firm, stomach. She allowed her hand to travel up and across his chest, her thumb brushing across one of his nipples which drew a small shiver from him, before moving over his shoulder to rub circles on his back.

Her touch felt incredibly good to him and his body yearned for her to do more. As if she heard his unspoken request, she removed her lips from his and began to plant quick, but heated kisses across his face and moving to his ear. He felt her warm breath against his skin before she nipped at the lobe affectionately, causing him let out a groan. He loved what she was doing, but at the same time, he felt like it was time for him to give something back.

After letting her trail kisses along his neck for several moments, he scooped her up in his arms, and walked her over to their bed, setting her down on it gently. Her eyes watched him longingly, quickly looking of his bare chest as he hovered over her. His position of dominance that he now held gave her a comforting feeling of protection and it was a feeling that she welcomed. She knew that no one else but him could make her feel like that.

He gently caressed her cheek with the back of his hand before moving it down to finger the pendant of the betrothal necklace he had given her just half an hour ago. Part of him couldn't really believe that they were now engaged, but the proof was right there in front of him. He slowly leaned down and planted a kiss on her cheek, and she tilted her head to bring their lips together once again as her arms came around him, making sure that he didn't move off of her.

Moments later, she felt his hands slip into her robes and unite the knots that held it around her. He didn't seem to be doing a very good job at it however and she heard a quite groan of frustration come from him. She broke the kiss once again, looking up at him with a soft smile on her face as she reached her own hands into her robe to untie it for him. He took care of the rest, lifting her up from the bed by a few inches with one hand so that he could easily push the robe off of her shoulders. Once he got that off her, he tossed it to the side, one of his hands instantly coming to rest on her bare stomach before noticing that she was also trying to remove her own pants. He helped her push the clothing down and off her legs, leaving her in only her white under bindings.

It wasn't the first time she had been like this in front of him but she still couldn't help but blush, knowing that in a few minutes, she would probably completely bare in front of him.

She felt his hands tickle her sides, drawing a smile from her before he leaned down and planted kisses along her bare shoulder. Her skin was so smooth, and he couldn't help but let his hands run across every inch of bare skin he could reach. She felt him caress her sides, her back, her arms, and then finally one hand made its way down to her leg. He watched her face while he was doing all this, not wanting to do anything that made her uncomfortable. Katara felt her breathing quicken when his hand moved to her inner thigh and she couldn't help but feel herself becoming a little wet when he slowly moved his hand up further, coming to rest as close as possible to her still covered womanhood.

He noticed that her cheeks flushed a pink hue that spread through the rest of her body and he knew that she was enjoying his attentions. Still, he decided to move his hand away from her most sensitive area and instead, he reached behind her and tugged on the back of her breast bindings in an attempt to bring them off. He felt them loosen after he tugged at the knots a few time but before he removed them completely, he looked into her eyes in a silent question if what he was doing was okay.

"Go ahead," she whispered, giving him a small nod. Though it was quiet, her voice was full of passion and longing, and that encouraged him further to continue.

A few moments later, her upper bindings loosened completely and he slowly removed them off of her, giving her time to stop him if she suddenly changed her mind. She just lay beneath him however and waited, suddenly feeling the cool air touch her now exposed breasts once he discarded the bindings off to the side.

She looked away from him, suddenly very shy and not wanting to meet his gaze. He took a few moments to gaze at her now exposed chest before noticing her discomfort. Before he did anything else, he needed to reassure her. He cupped her cheek in his hand and turned her head to face his, looking into her eyes deeply before leaning down to kiss her softly. He heard her let out a long sigh as she relaxed underneath him. While one hand wrapped around her to hold her close to him, his other slowly traveled from her shoulder and down to her chest, cupping one of her breasts warmly in his palm.

She gasped at the contact and desperately leaned her body upwards, wanting to feel more. He gladly complied to her request, moving his hand to her other breast and lightly touching it and drawing small circles with the tips of his fingers. He was teasing her and it was something that she couldn't tolerate for long.

"Aang," she gasped desperately, breaking away from their kiss and gazing up at his eyes pleadingly.

He smiled and nipped at her ear while his thumb brushed against her one of her dark, erect nipples. Knowing that she wanted to feel more of his attentions, and not wanting to tease her any longer, he trailed kisses down and across the slopes of her breasts. Both his arms wrapped around her, his hands resting on her back, as her took a nipple into his mouth.

Katara let out a loud moan when he began to suck on her breast gently and one of her hands unconsciously gripped the back of his head to hold him there. What he was doing felt amazing to her and she couldn't help but buck her hips up against his when she felt his tongue run across her nipple.

Loving her reaction and wanting to hear more of her, he moved one of his hands to cup her other breast. He gave it an experimental squeeze causing Katara's eyes fluttered shut as she focused on the feelings that he was giving her. He continued to suck and fondle her chest, letting her moans excite him further to the point where he felt the hardness that had formed between his legs begin to ache.

Katara was brought out of her haze when she felt it press against her thigh and she found herself wanting to explore more of him. She reached her hands down to grasp the edges of his pants and underwear, and nudged them down as far as she could manage.

Aang stopped his attentions to her breast when he felt what she was trying to do and broke away from her. Katara opened her eyes at the loss of contact, breathing heavily as she saw his flustered form sitting next to her. His pants were already loose and it was all too easy for him to pull them, and his underwear, down the rest of the way. Before he knew it, he had removed the last of his clothing, and he was sitting naked right next to her. His body was on full display for her eyes to gaze over as she sat up next to him and he found himself suddenly very embarrassed.

Katara felt herself blush at the sight of him but it was by no means a bad sight. She couldn't help but let her eyes travel downwards to see his hardness that throbbed between his legs. He looked away when he noticed what she was looking at, not knowing what she would think.

She smiled and hesitantly reached a hand forwards to touch it lightly.

"Katara," he gasped her name at the contact but was quickly silenced when her lips crashed down on his own.

He felt every coherent thought leave his mind as he felt her hand wrap around him. He moaned into her mouth as one her hands held the back of his head while her other hand began to slide up and down his shaft.

Katara had done it all on instinct and apparently, she was doing a good job. He felt surprisingly hot to her and she loved the feeling of him in her hand. She felt his body shiver against her as she pushed him back to lie on the bed. She climbed half on top of him, making sure she didn't stop stroking him, and she kept her lips against his, muffling the constant groans that came from the back of his throat.

All Aang could focus on was her hand that was down between his legs and he broke their kiss to gasp for some much needed air. Katara just smiled down at him and planted kisses along his neck and shoulder as she continued her ministrations. His hands gripped the bed sheets tightly when her hand moved down a little more and cupped his sack briefly before moving back up again to hold him tightly in her palms, slowly moving her hand back and forth along his length.

He felt a familiar pressure gather up between his legs and he desperately bucked his hips up, coaxing her to move her hand faster.

Her name fell desperately from his lips and she felt him throb wildly in her hand. He knew what was about to happen but he didn't find the willpower to tell Katara to stop. Seconds later, he let out a loud grown and his whole body shook briefly as waves of pleasure shot through him. She continued to stroke him, drawing out the pleasurable sensations as he shook violently beneath her for several seconds before he fell limply onto the bed, gasping.

Katara smiled, knowing what had happened, and leaned down to peck hip lips before examining the somewhat sticky fluids that had fallen onto her hand. She used her other hand to bend the fluids off her and onto the floor, not really caring at the moment that someone would probably have to clean it up later.

"I'm sorry," Aang whispered suddenly once he was able to find the energy to speak, "I tried to stop but…"

She silenced him with a quick kiss before caressing his cheek lovingly, "You don't have to be sorry about anything," she smiled at him shyly, "Besides, that just means that you get to return the favor."

He smiled back at her and blushed, his eyes gazing down at the wet fabric between her legs. Feeling a new found energy in him to give her the same pleasure the she had just given him, he wrapped his arms around her and flipped them so that he was once again laying on top of her.

His hands slowly traveled down and across her breast, skimming over her bare stomach, before pushing the last of her clothing down her legs; leaving her completely naked beneath him. She had a similar reaction as he had before and she looked away from him nervously as his eyes skimmed her bare body.

In his eyes, she was flawless. His eyes travelled up her smooth legs and gazed a few seconds at the newly revealed moist area that showed him just how aroused she was before he looked across her stomach, her breasts, and finally coming up to rest on her face.

"You're so beautiful," he told her softly, amazed that this wonderful women was here with him…and always will be, he remembered as he briefly glanced at the betrothal necklace that still hung from her neck.

"Thank you," She whispered and looked back up at him, eyes gazing into his.

Her heart fluttered from his words and she wasted no time pushing his head back down to kiss him. She felt his tongue push its way into her mouth and any nervousness she felt at being naked in front of him quickly vanished.

She didn't resist when she felt one his hands move down and over her breasts, and when that hand brushed against the small patch of hair she had between her legs, she sucked in a breath and clutched him to her. Seeing that she comfortable at what he was doing, Aang allowed his hand to finally travel a little lower.

Katara let out a loud moan of pleasure when she felt his hand run across her wet opening and she began to kiss him more frantically as she bucked her hips up into his hand, encouraging him to touch her more.

He smiled, and curiously ran his hand over her wetness again, getting the same reaction from her. Growing bolder, he moved his fingers between her folds, surprised at how wet she was and stroked her softly. Katara let out a whine and bucked her hips up against his hand once more, wanting him to touch her more. His strokes became more firm and a few moments later, one of his fingers brushed up against a small nub and she broke their kiss and nearly screamed from the contact.

Realizing that what he had done felt extremely good to her, he moved his fingers back to where he had felt the small nub and brushed against it once again, producing another loud moan from his soul mate.

Katara's eyes squeezed shut as she felt him begin to circle the small bundle of nerves. It just felt so good; there were no words to describe it. Her hands fell from his back and clutched at the bed sheets desperately, never wanting this feeling to come to an end. She could already feel a strong heat gathering in her lower stomach and it spread all throughout her flushed body.

She wasn't prepared though for what he did next. As he moved his hand to run across her wet center, his finger slide inside of her, and she let out a pleasurable moan as she bucked her hips up, feeling his finger slid back and forth as a result, stroking her inner walls. He caught on to what she was doing and began to move his own finger back and forth. He watched her face as she tossed her head from side to side, gasping for air. He felt his own arousal begin to harden again from what he was hearing from her.

Wanting to increase her pleasure, he dipped his head down and once again took a nipple into her mouth and sucked while he sped up the movements of his finger inside of her. One of her hands held his head against her while her other clutched at the bed sheets even tighter. She could feel herself drawing closer and closer to her release and she couldn't help but moan his name over and over, encouraging him to keep up what he was doing. She didn't want him to stop…she didn't _ever _want him to stop.

When his finger curled inside of her at the same time his thumb began to prod her small, sensitive nub, she felt the heat in her body intensify. The sensations were too much for her.

She let out a long drawn out yell as waves of pleasure began to erupt from her heated center. Her back arched off the bed, pressing herself closer to Aang. He felt her whole body convulse and spasm and he had to use his free arm to hold her shaking body tightly against him while his other hand drew out her orgasm for as long as possible, her inner walls tightening around his finger.

Once it was all over, her body was splayed across the bed, and she was gazing up at him with wide eyes breathlessly. He removed his hand from her and looked at the wetness that was on his fingers curiously as he moved himself to lie next to her. She seemed to recover quicker then he thought she would however as she tugged on his arm a few seconds later, looking at him with a seductive smile.

"I need you…now," she whispered, hands stroking his arm as her eyes gazed down at his hardened sex.

She gently coaxed him back on top of her, wanting to finally become one with him. Her hand reached down to grasp him as she guided him to her opening, her eyes staying locked to his own. They were ready, they saw in each other's eyes.

He carefully pushed himself inside of her, feeling her face quickly turn into a look of discomfort and he quickly stopped his movements, thinking he had done something wrong.

"It's alright," she assured him, her hand stroking the back of his head, "It supposed to be a little uncomfortable for me the first time. Please…keep going."

Aang just nodded, trusting that she would stop him if it became too painful to her. She was so tight, so wet, and he couldn't help but let out a soft moan as he moved deeper inside of her. He felt her whine softly from the pain and he placed a comforting kiss on her cheeks, one of his hands moving down to rub her breast to distract her from the pain. She smiled gratefully at him and a few moments later, he was sheathed fully inside of her.

"Just stay still…for a moment," she told him a little breathlessly.

He complied and stroked her cheek with his hand as her body adjusted to him. The pain slowly began to fade away and pleasure replaced it, and Katara let out a low moan from the feeling. She felt so full with him inside her, so complete, and part of her wondered how she had gone her whole life without experiencing this before. She moved her hips up against his, silently telling Aang that she was ready.

Aang took her queue and moved himself slowly out of her, until only the tip of his hardness was inside of her warmth, before pushing back in again. The action caused the couple to let out low moans and Aang moved his hips against hers again, bringing the same feeling. He kept up the slow tempo as they both just relished in the feeling of being connected in the most intimate of ways.

Katara hands stroked his back as their lips met in a heated kiss. Soon though, she found that he was moving to slow for her and she moved her hips up against his own quickly, causing a wave of pleasure to shoot through them as Aang picked up the pace.

Their bodies moved in unison with each other, both never wanting the moment to end. Katara's nails dug into his shoulders and he grasped her hips, allowing himself to move even deeper into her then before.

Heated gasps and moans filled the room as they moved against each other even more frantically. One of Aang's hands moved to grope her breast, increasing Katara's pleasure while her body writhed beneath him.

She found herself unable to think. The only thing that existed to her right now was Aang and the pleasure that he was giving to her. She gasped out his name, her head tossing and turning on the pillow her head was resting on as her hands fell from his back and gripped his arms desperately.

Aang felt himself drawing close to his release and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her body flush against his own as he moved in and out of her as fast as he could, feeling her hips meeting his own thrust for thrust. He knew that she was close to her own release as well and he forced himself to hold back his own so he could satisfy her fully.

Katara's breasts jiggled against his chest as she planted furious kisses across his face. There was nothing more she wanted right now than for his hips to continue moving against her own. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper into her, wanting to be filled up by him as much as possible. Her arms wrapped around him tightly as well and soon, it was only their hips that were moving.

Aang buried his head into her shoulder as he felt himself began to throb within her. Not wanting to have his release without her, Aang slipped one of his hand between them and once again squeezed her breasts.

Suddenly, he felt her inner walls tighten around him as her whole body gripped him tightly. Her back arched as she screamed out his name, throwing her head back and squeezing her eyes shut as she felt her orgasm overtake her.

Her reaction had been too much for him and seconds later, his body shook as he groaned loudly, releasing himself inside of her as he clutched her shaking body desperately against his own.

They each collapsed breathlessly onto the bed, him on top of her and for several minutes, they didn't move. They were too exhausted. They were sweaty and neither of them felt like they could move, not that they even wanted to.

Eventually however, Katara finally found the will to speak and she turned her gaze down to her fiancé, whose head was nestled into her neck.

"That was…"

"Amazing?" He finished for her, planting a soft kiss against her bare skin.

"More than amazing," Katara sighed, laying her head back on the pillow, "I don't even know how to describe it."

Aang let out a weak laugh and attempted to roll off of her only for her to tighten her arms around him to hold her where she was.

"Aren't I a little heavy?" He asked.

Katara shook her head as one of her hands began to stroke the back of his head, "It feels nice."

Aang just gave out a happy sigh and once again, nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck. Katara felt her own eyes drift shut, suddenly realizing that he had never pulled out of her yet but she didn't mind…it felt good to her. Besides, if his soft breathing was any indication, Aang was already to sleep and she didn't have the heart to wake him.

She smiled, replaying the day's event in her mind once more, before drifting off into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>So there it is...my first lemon that I have wrote. Was it good? Or did I just fail on all level? Please be honest. I will say that there is not really a planned number of lemons that will be in this fic...I'm going to base it off of how well this one is received and if people want more.<strong>

**Anyways, so I said last week that this fic might have a week long break. Its gonna happen. So, next week there will be no update but hopefully the week after there will be. I would just rather give you guys the best work I can give you instead of just a half attempted fic so I would rather wait until things get better for me before I start posting again. Anyways, just expect the next update to be the week after next**.** I have to say thought that this is probably the best spot as any for there to be a short break. This chapter kind of marks the end of the 'introductory' chapters in my head. After this the plot begins to move full speed forwards. **

**So let me know what you thought of the lemon and I will see you guys in a couple of weeks!**


	6. Departure

**Okay first off, I wanted to say that I'm so sorry that it has taken me two months to get around to posting again. I hope everyone is still here. Anyway, since I am sure you would rather just read the chapter, I am going to save all of my excuses for the author's note at the bottom.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Avatar**

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><p>Aang looked around, suddenly very confused as to where he was. Last thing he remembered was falling asleep on top of Katara after they had…<p>

Aang smiled, thinking back on what he and Katara had been doing. It was one of the best moments of his life and he was sure she felt the same. Where was she though? Where was he? This was obviously not their bedroom.

Aang's eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for any sign of anything that might be familiar. He was in a dark, dense forest…it was probably a swamp. However, unlike most forests, where life seemed to be everywhere, this forest was completely silent…no sign of life at all.

It was then that he noticed the height of the trees; how the towered hundreds of feet above him. There wasn't anything like it that existed in the world. From that and the fact that this place had an eerie haze surrounding it, Aang's mind reached one conclusion: he was, somehow, in the spirit world.

_Welcome Avatar, we have been waiting for you for a long time._

Aang spun around upon hearing the voice echoing through the forest. It didn't sound like a human voice at all though; it was more like a deep, slow grumble.

_We hope that you would be willing to assist us._

Aang couldn't see anything. As far as he could tell, he was alone. Who was speaking then?

_The Avatar is the key to everything. We share the same past…We have the same goals._

"Who are you?" Aang's voice echoed back. He didn't really know what else to do but to ask.

_We are peace._

That didn't make much sense.

"What do you want?" Aang asked, curious as to what this spirit's goals were. Sure, he had lots of spirits come up to him and speak with him sometimes, but this one seemed, well…different.

_Your attention. Wait…and we will come._

"Uhh…okay?" Aang scratched his head and looked around for anything that was coming his way.

Suddenly, his eyes feel upon a man. He couldn't see the man's features however as he was clouded by the darkness that was covering this area of the spirit world. Aang couldn't help but have a sinking feeling that something was very wrong. Everyplace he had been to in the spirit world had been full of exotic creatures and this place just seemed…dead. The only thing there was the man, standing a couple dozen feet away from him.

"Get out of here," the man said in a sharp voice.

"Why? What's going on?" Aang asked, realizing this was a different spirit that the one he had just been talking to and he started to step forwards but the man's anxious voice stopped him.

"There is no time to explain. They're almost here. Leave. NOW!" the man screamed the last word, looking around himself and Aang cautiously.

"I don't underst-"

Aang was cut off when the man's body suddenly glowed a bright blue and he felt an energy surge through him. The world around him seemed to collapse, the man had disappeared, and Aang was briefly able to see some creature move in the corner of his eye before everything faded to black.

* * *

><p>Aang's eyes opened as he felt someone lying beneath him. It was Katara, and they were both in the same position that he remembered them being in. Aang blushed at remembering the he was still inside of her.<p>

He was distracted however by what had just happened. Was that all a dream?

Aang shook his head. That couldn't have been a dream. He had been in the spirit world and one thing was certain…something was going on that he didn't know about.

"Hey."

Aang felt Katara's hands begin to stroke his back as her gently voice filled his ears. He tilted his head up to look at her and gave her a soft smile.

"Hey," he said back just as quietly as she did, giving her a soft kiss.

"Is something wrong?" Katara asked once he pulled away, "I woke up and I felt that something was bothering you."

Aang started at her for a few minutes before sighing and reluctantly removed himself off of her to sit at her side. She shivered when she felt him pull out of her but nonetheless sat up next to him as well.

"I think I was in the spirit world," Aang explained, trying not to let her state of undress distract his thoughts too much, "Something tried to talk to me and then a guy came and…I think he forced me back here."

Katara raised an eyebrow at him, "That didn't really make much sense."

"Tell me about it," Aang looked away from her, and let out a deep breath, "Something's wrong Kat. Something is happening and I don't know what it is."

Katara was silent for a few moments as she thought about what he said before placing a hand on his shoulder in reassurance, "Then we'll figure it out together okay?"

Aang just nodded and she felt a feeling of confliction coming through their connection. Seconds later, his eyes met hers and they seemed just as unsure about something else.

"Katara remember earlier when we were...you know, and then you bent my…stuff off of your fingers," Aang blushed as he saw Katara nod before he continued, noting that her cheeks had become a little red to, "Do you think you could…bend it…out of you as well."

"Well yeah," Katara answered immediately but then paused when her mind drew up the implications of doing that, "But that would mean…"

"You wouldn't become pregnant," Aang nodded and sighed, "I know."

Katara looked him over briefly before looking back into his eyes, "Do you not want to start a family?"

"What?" Aang's eyes widened as a surge of panic rushed through him, "I want that more than anything Kat. I just…if something really is wrong…I think we should wait until we know that things are alright. If something happened and then you were carrying our child during it…I can't see that turning out well at all. Not to mention that…"

Katara place a finger on his lips to cut him off when he began to talk a little too fast. His eyes looked down at the tip of her finger before moving back up to her own questionably.

"It's okay Aang," Katara told him softly, "I understand and I'm fine with it."

"Are you sure," Aang said, eyes darting across her face to look for any sign of her being disappointed. He found only a soft smile.

"Yes," she nodded understandingly, "We have the rest of our lives ahead of us Aang and if we're going to raise a family, I want to do it right. I'm completely okay with waiting for a little bit until we figure all this out."

"As long as you're sure," Aang looked down at the bed sheets. Not really sure about he felt about his own opinion about it.

"I'm sure," Katara smiled, "Besides, it's not uncommon for Waterbenders to…well, do what you are suggesting. It's actually quite common."

"It is?" Aang picked his head back up to look at her in slight surprise.

"Well yeah," Katara shrugged, "It's just one of the perks for being a Waterbender I guess. The other nations use herbs and such to stop a woman from getting pregnant. It's the same thing, just different methods."

"We if you want to go to the bathroom to…do that, then I'll just wait here," Aang told her.

"I will later. I'm not really sure if I want to do it right now though," Katara smiled at him mischievously.

"Why not," Aang raised an eyebrow.

"Well I'm wide away, you're next to me, and I can't get the thoughts of what we were doing last night out of my head," Katara looked at him seductively, "Let's just say that I think if I bended your 'stuff' out of me now, I'd probably have to do it again in another hour or so."

Aang blushed at what she seemed to be suggesting but wasn't able to come up with a response as he felt her lips suddenly crash down onto his…

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><p>Dressed in a dark hooded cloak, Hakoda walked through the hallways of the Lake Laogai Prison. It had been hard convincing the guards to let him through and in the end, the only reason they let him into the prison was because he was one of the world's leaders. He could tell that they were a little curious however when he told them who he wanted to speak to. Anyone would probably be a little confused if he told them what he had just told the guards.<p>

This was something he needed to do though. He needed to speak with Tau. He was leaving the city at daybreak and he had been holding this off for as long as he could. As far as he knew, this might be his last chance to mend things with the powerful Waterbender that he had betrayed so long ago.

The guards had told them where he needed to go but even so, he had a hard time finding it. The hallways all looked the same and he figured that he went in a circle quite a few times. Eventually though, he came to a hallway that appeared to only have one prison cell. It made sense that they would keep Tau alone and isolated from the rest of the prisoners.

After his capture it was decided that he would be kept secret. Generally, no one knew his name. No one knew what he had been trying to accomplish. Most importantly, no one knew about the Yanari. They had isolated him to keep things that way. Some things were simply best kept a secret and Tau had uncovered something that was more dangerous than anything the world had ever encountered. The only people that knew were the world's leaders and Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki.

Hakoda had to admit, it was a little unnerving knowing the truth about it all. The Yanari were things that could only be described as nightmares. Part of him wished that he never learned about them. He had to push all of that out of his head for now though. He didn't come here to talk about the Yanari; he came here to talk to Tau.

As he walked closer to the Waterbender's cell, Hakoda found himself becoming increasingly nervous. He was not expecting a warm welcome. Once he reached it, he looked through the door's window and into the cell. Hakoda didn't know what he was expecting Tau to be doing but he was surprised to find the Waterbender sitting on the floor and looking right back at him.

"You're not one of the guards," Tau stated, leaning up against the wall and crossing his arms, "Who are you?"

Hakoda realized the Tau probably didn't see who he was because the hood of the cloak hid his face rather well. Taking a deep breath, Hakoda reached up and pushed the hood off of his head, staring the other man straight in the eyes.

"It's been a long time Tau," he said as gently as he could.

Upon seeing him, Tau's eyes instantly narrowed and Hakoda could tell that he was suddenly very angry.

"I know you probably have mixed feelings about seeing me…" Hakoda began cautiously, only to have Tau interrupt him before he could continue.

"Mixed feelings," Tau laughed bitterly, standing up so that he was eye level with Hakoda, "I know exactly what I am feeling right now. You sure do have a lot of guts coming here after everything you did."

"I know," Hakoda said, trying not to provoke the other man any more then he already had, "but can I please just speak? Once I'm finished, I'll leave if you want me to and you won't have to hear from me ever again."

Tau snorted, gazing at Hakoda with a look of disgust, "Make it quick. This place is already bad enough without you being here."

Hakoda ignored the comment and took another deep breath before speaking, making sure not to break Tau's gaze, "It was never my intention to betray you when I sent you and those Earthbenders to defend that bridge. I had every intention to come back for you but…"

"The city was being overrun and it was too dangerous," Tau interrupted, rolling his eyes at the Watertribe Chief, "We were at war. Last time I checked, safety is not something you should be expecting. War is about people getting in and out of dangerous situations. I did my part. I followed your orders, trusting that you would get me out once that city was evacuated. You abandoned me and for what?"

"Tau, please," Hakoda told him gently, "You have to understand that I was young and inexperienced. I'm a different man now."

Tau scowled, shaking his head, "No, you're not. As much as you would like to think so, you aren't any different than what you were all of those years ago. You did what you did…and nothing will ever change that."

Hakoda opened his mouth to reply but Tau continued abruptly, his eyes staring at Hakoda with a hatred that brought a shiver down the Watertribe Chief's spine.

"Do you know what it's like to be in a Fire Nation Prison?" Tau asked rhetorically, "Sure, you have been in one before. I am well aware of your capture after the Day of Black Sun. However, you were only there for a couple weeks. I was held prisoner for more than a decade. You didn't have to experience that. You didn't have to deal with the torture. All you had to deal with was your guilty conscious;" Tau paused before correcting himself, "That is if you ever were guilty about it. Maybe you wanted me gone so your little girl would be the only Waterbender in the tribe. Maybe that is something you wanted…to make her seem all the more special."

"That is not true," Hakoda argued back, and his hands gripped the windows bars tightly, "You have no idea what I felt like after what I did. You're right, I don't know what you went through and I'm not going to pretend that I did. You have to understand though…I had a family…"

"Oh, is that you're reasoning behind you leaving me and the Earthbenders to rot?" Tau cut him off, "You had to get back safely to your family? And because I didn't have a family of my own I was just…expendable?"

"Tau it's not that," Hakoda shook his head. This was all a big mistake coming here. It made Hakoda feel even worse about everything now. The man that he was talking to right now was radically different then what he had been when he had last seen him…and the change was entirely Hakoda's fault. Suddenly, he felt a desperate feeling to make things up to the Waterbender.

"Tau," Hakoda said after a few moments of complete silence, "I'm not expecting you to forgive me, and I know that will probably never happen. Will you at least let me try to make it up to you? I could get you out of here. We could both return back to the Southern Watertribe. Things could go back to the way they were."

Tau just snorted and looked away from him, "You're insane if you think I am going to walk out of here with you," he looked back at Hakoda with the same anger he had held before, but Hakoda briefly saw a look of longing flash through his icy blue eyes, "Things could never be normal again…no matter how much either of us wants them to."

"Tau…"

"You should leave," the Waterbender sat back down up against the wall, looking away from Hakoda for the last time, "Now."

Hakoda just stood there for several seconds as if he wasn't sure if he should listen to Tau or not. He shook his head, feeling his gut twist itself into a tight knot at the realization that what he had done affected Tau more than he had originally thought. Compared to the Tau he knew years ago, this Tau was broken. That was the easiest way to describe it, and Hakoda knew that there was nothing he could do that could rectify that.

Tau heard the Watertribe Chief turn and leave, hearing his footsteps grow softer and softer until he could not hear them at all. He shook his head in disgust. What right did that…monster…have that made him think that he could come here?

Tau's waterbending was back to full strength and it had taken all of his willpower to not drive an icicle straight into the other man's skull. Tau would have loved to have done that…but that would have ruined Fei's attempts to get him out of prison. He might be reckless at times, but Tau knew the importance of holding back and waiting for the right moment to strike. After all, he did evade the entire world for months with the help of just two other people. If there was one thing Tau knew, it was that he would have his chance to deal with Hakoda again. He just had to be patient.

"Are you alright?"

Tau looked up, seeing Fei looking at him through the window.

"I'm just ready to get out of here," Tau answered back. He wasn't sure if Fei knew about Hakoda's visit but Tau wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.

"That is what I am here to talk to you about," Fei told him, "You sure that your bending is back to its full potential?"

Tau simply nodded.

"Okay then," Fei explained, "The Avatar is leaving the city tomorrow morning to go back to the Southern Watertribe. That puts him out of our way."

Tau couldn't help but smile, knowing what Fei was going to say next.

"We're getting you out of here tomorrow night Tau."

* * *

><p>"Well I can't say I'm surprised since Aang told me that it was coming, but congratulations you two," Sokka smiled, looking up at his sister and the Avatar who were climbing on top of Appa to set their already packed bags in the saddle.<p>

The group was getting ready to leave Ba Sing Se, much to their pleasure, and the morning had been filled with the tedious job of gathering everything they had in a few bags and bringing them out to Appa. The bison sat right outside their home comfortably as the group packed the last of their belongings. About a couple dozen feet down the street, Hakoda and the rest of the Southern Watertribe warriors were packing their own belongings in a few carriages all pulled by Ostrich Horses. Needless to say, things seemed a little crowded, but Sokka was glad that it weren't as hectic as he originally thought it would be. In the midst of all the packing however, Sokka and Suki had noticed the new betrothal necklace around Katara's neck; which brought them to where they were now.

"You knew that Aang was going to propose?" Katara asked, looking down at her brother from atop Appa's saddle.

"Of course," Sokka shrugged, "You think I'm going to let anyone propose to my sister without my say so?"

Katara took a quick glanced at Aang, who rolled his eyes briefly, before turning back to her brother.

"And what would you do if Aang hadn't of told you?" she questioned.

"Then your new fiancé would be dodging my boomerang right about now," Sokka crossed his arms and smiled. Of course, he was joking. He really was happy for the couple but he couldn't help but tease them a bit.

"And we all know how that would of turned out," Suki jumped in, handing the last bag up to the newly engaged couple so they could set it on Appa, "Katara would have frozen you to the wall until you begged her to let you go."

Sokka shot her a disappointing look, "Okay, seriously…you're supposed to be on my side."

"Just telling you how it is, like I always do," Suki let out a quick giggle before giving her boyfriend a peck on the cheek, "In any case," she continued, looking up at the couple peering down at them from Appa's saddle, "We really are happy for you two."

"Thanks Suki," Katara smiled, unconsciously leaning closer towards Aang, "That means a lot to us."

Aang simply smiled and nodded, not saying a word. He was distracted by a lot of things. He couldn't get what he and Katara had shared together last night out of his head and on top of that, there was that extremely disturbing trip to the spirit world. No one, besides Katara of course, had noticed his silence since they were too busy getting ready to leave but he knew someone would bring it up eventually if he didn't speak up.

"So," he cleared his throat, trying to push the thoughts from his mind, "Are we ready to go?"

"Looks like it," Sokka answered, grabbing Suki's hand to lead her to walk up Appa's tail and onto the saddle, "I'm looking forwards to being back home."

Katara nodded in agreement, feeling a sense of happiness coming from Aang as well. They were all ready to get back and relax after what they had been through during the past several months.

"I've never been to the South Pole," Suki said thoughtfully, "Do you think I'll like it?"

Sokka tilted his head towards her and smiled, "Once you get past the ice and the cold then…yeah, you'll love it. Think of it has a slightly colder Kyoshi Island."

"Well that's not true," Katara deadpanned.

Sokka just glared at her, feeling Suki rest a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure I'll love it Sokka," Suki assured him.

Sokka opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the sudden sound of his father's voice.

"You kids ready?"

Aang peaked over the edge of the saddle once again so looked at his future father-in-law, "Yeah, we're just about to head out."

"That's what I was thinking about," Hakoda responded, "Our carriages are going to take us to Chameleon Bay and from there we'll take our ships straight down to the South Pole. Were you planning on following us or are you just going to fly straight down on Appa and meet us back home?"

Aang knew the answer to that, he and his friends had talked about it a couple of days ago. Still, he looked back to them to get one final confirmation and once he saw them all nod their heads he turned back to Hakoda.

"We're just going to fly Appa down and meet you there. This will probably the last time we travel for awhile so we're going to do it like we did in the good old days," Aang explained.

"Right," Sokka jutted in sarcastically, "Because running from the Fire Nation or chasing Tau across the Earth Kingdom was just so much fun."

"Okay," Hakoda smiled, choosing to ignore his son's comment, "I'll see you all at the Southern Watertribe in a few days then."

Aang nodded as the watertribe chief turned to walk back to the rest of his men. Jumping from the saddle down to Appa's head, Aang was about to tell his bison to take to the skies when he suddenly spotted a familiar figure walking down the street towards him.

It was Tetsu, accompanied by a couple of guards that were walking a few feet behind him.

"Is that Tetsu?" Katara questioned, tilting her head curiously.

"Yeah," Aang raised an eyebrow, "I wonder what he wants."

He hopped down from Appa's head to greet the new Earth King, who gave him a soft smile.

"I was hoping I would catch you before you left," Tetsu said.

"Is something wrong?" Aang asked a little worried.

"No, nothing major," Tetsu held up his hands and shook his head, "But just a word of advice before you go."

"What is it?" Katara asked, as she came up to stand beside Aang after having got off of Appa.

Tetsu smiled and bowed his head in respect, "You must be Katara. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Katara blushed, not being used to having authority figures show signs of respect like that. They were usually directed towards Aang. Still, she managed to mirror his actions of respect, "Likewise."

"Anyways," Tetsu continued from where he had been before Katara joined in, "We're getting reports from various towns and villages of a massive storm just south of us. Since you are planning on flying, it might be best to head west until you reach a mountain chain called the Kiglar Ridge. From there it should be safe to turn south and head straight down to the Watertribe."

"Oh, well…thanks for the heads up. We'll do that," Aang nodded, a small amount of confusion dripping from his voice. He wasn't really expecting traveling advice from the Earth King.

Tetsu smiled, "I'm just doing what I can to help you have a safe journey. Farewell, Aang, and I hope we get the pleasure to talk again."

"I'm sure we will," Aang responded, "Thanks again."

With that Aang took Katara's hand and lead her back to Appa.

"That was a little unexpected," Katara inquired as they walked back.

"It was," Aang bit his lip in thought, "Still, Tetsu has done nothing but show kindness to me so I think it would be wise to take his advice. We don't want to get caught in a storm again if we can avoid it."

Katara squeezed his hand encouragingly, "Well you know that whatever you decided to do I'll be with you, every step of the way."

Aang smiled, and looked at her gratefully, "I know."

"So…" Katara began thoughtfully after a few seconds of silence, "Mind if I join you on Appa's head when we leave?"

Aang let out a small laugh in response, "I thought you'd never ask."

Meanwhile, a few dozen feet away from them, Tetsu watched as the couple hopped back onto Appa and he continued watching thoughtfully as the bison took off into the skies. Once the Sky Bison vanished from view, Tetsu turned and began to walk back to his palace, knowing that it wouldn't be long until he saw Aang and his friends again.

* * *

><p><strong>So just a few notes about this chapter before I get to my excuses on why I didn't post this earlier. Last chapter, I believe I said that chapter 5 marked the end of the introduction part of the story<strong> **and that the plot was now going to pick up its pace. This chapter was essentially the transition chapter. Also, the thing that Katara did to not become pregnant was something that I decided to do because well...its better that having her conveniently not become pregnant whenever she and Aang do that stuff. As I have said before, the first lemon was not going to come until much, much later into the story so since I made it come earlier I had to have a way for Katara to not get pregnant. I thought this way would be best and I have seen quite a few people use it before so I know its not that out of the norm.**

**Anyways, now for why I haven't been posting. At first it was because I was having some personal relationship problems with a girlfriend of mine and this group of friends that we hung out with. I'm not going to go into details but long story short, those problems continued for the next couple of weeks before me and the girlfriend broke up and I cut all ties with the group. Now the break up and all that was my own choice. I'm the one that chose to break up and all that but that doesn't mean that I was okay with it. I just needed to move on and to do that I had to stop seeing those people. Anyway since there is a lot of Kataang in this story well...I couldn't bring myself to write Kataang romance right after I lost my own so you know...I just didn't write for a week or two. **

**Then I eventually slowly started writing again and then this game called Mass Effect 3 came out. Now this is probably the worst of the excuses but I will admit that game took up my life for a good week and a half. So once again, after the week and a half, I started writing once again. I was just about to finish it and send it off to my beta when my computer crashed from a virus and deleted everything. The virus ended up being from a usb drive that I plugged into a computer at my college so the virus came from my college. So anyway, having to rewrite a whole chapter was a little disheartening and I needed to fix my computer. After about another week or so I finally decided to try writing again and once it was clear I wasn't going ot have any other problems, I announce on my profile page the release date for this chapter.**

**So yeah, it was just a lot of crap and on top of that, there was the typical school stuff that I had to work on and I had to write this chapter twice.**

**Anyway, from now one I will update once a week on Fridays. I more then likely will be able to keep that up. Worst case scenario, I might have to take a week off every now and then but I'm not planning on that. So I hope you enjoyed this long awaited chapter, let me know what you think, and I will see you all next Friday.:)  
><strong>


	7. Prison Break

**Okay, so this is being posted a little later then normal but just FYI, updates will usually be posted around 2 PM Eastern Time. This week is an exception. Anyway, on with the chapter...**

**Disclaimer: Nothing's changed in the past week...I still don't own Avatar.**

* * *

><p>"So remind me why we're listening to a guy we hardly know and going out of our way to follow his direction to avoid some storm that he could have just made up," Sokka stated as he and Suki finished setting up their tent. After a day's worth of flying, the group decided to land in a small clearing in the middle of the forest and make camp for the night as it was already very late. After all, they weren't in a hurry to get down to the Southern Watertribe. There weren't any deadlines, they could take their time and enjoy the last few days of travelling. That was exactly the point that Aang brought up to counter Sokka's comment.<p>

"Why not?" he asked as he helped Katara set up their own tent, with Appa watching a few feet away, "We don't have to rush and I'd rather take his advice and not get caught in a storm then fly straight into it. Besides, why would he lie to us about that?"

"I don't know," Sokka shrugged, "I'm a skeptic and we don't know Tetsu well enough yet."

"Well he seemed nice," Katara added, backing Aang up in the mild argument, "You need to be a little more trusting of people Sokka."

"Hey," Sokka countered back, crossing his arms, "Just so you know, my skepticism has saved our group dozens of times…need I remind you of Jet?"

That shut Aang and Katara up. They had realized long ago that trusting Jet back when they had first met him all those years ago was not one of their best moments. There was really nothing they could say to turn the argument in their favor once Sokka brought that up.

"Well what are you suggesting Sokka," Suki butted in, throwing her and Sokka's sleeping bags into their tent, "Do you want us to just ignore the Earth King's advice and risk flying straight into that storm he was talking about?"

"No," Sokka answered, "I'm just saying that from now on, we need to be a little more independent. We rely on other people's help to much. Our group follows what everyone else asks of us and frankly, I think that is part of the reason why Tau was able to lead us on so easily."

"Lead us on?" Suki raised an eyebrow, taking notice that Aang and Katara seemed to have lost interest in the conversation and were now throwing a bunch of blankets into the tent. She also noticed that Aang seemed to be blushing at whatever the couple was now talking about.

"Please Suki," Sokka sighed, bringing her attention back to her boyfriend, "I didn't even interact with Tau all that much and by the end of that whole fiasco…it was pretty obvious that we had followed his every move exactly how he wanted us to. Besides, Tetsu may appear nice but the Council of Five isn't exactly being the most welcoming bunch at the moment so it would probably be better for us to just do our own thing for now."

Suki thought back and the past several months and truth be told, Sokka had a point.

"Okay, so you're right," Suki said, "But that has nothing to do with us doing whatever someone asks of us. It's called being helpful Sokka. If people ask us for help, we help them."

"Yeah, and that's good and all," Sokka waved his hands dismissively, "but it also makes us predictable. I mean, when we were chasing Tau all over the Earth Kingdom we did nearly exactly what the Council of Five requested of us. Tau took advantage of that and Katara and Aang almost died because of it…twice."

"Okay, so from now on we'll be more open to your own expertise," Suki gave him a smile, "Does that make you feel better?"

"Once I get past the fact that you're just saying that to shut me up…yeah it makes me feel better," Sokka smiled back.

"Good," Suki laughed, "Now can we finally turn in for the night and get some sleep. It's getting late."

Sokka nodded and pulled open the flap on their tent, motioning her to go inside, "Lead the way."

* * *

><p>"Do you think Sokka has a point?" Aang asked as he crawled under the set of blankets they had set up in their tent.<p>

"About what?" Katara questioned, stripping down to her undergarments before crawling in beside her fiancé.

"You know," Aang explained, "About us needing to rely on ourselves a bit more."

"Oh, right," Katara laughed, having forgotten about what her brother had been talking about. Not that she was surprised to have forgotten; what she and Aang had started talking about outside their tent had been…distracting.

She mulled Aang's question over for a few moments before answering, snuggling herself into his arms in the process.

"I understand where he is coming from," she said at last, "and maybe he is right…but I don't think we should just ignore everyone else's advice like he says we should. We should just do what we feel is right…like we always do."

"And look where that gets us," Aang responded.

"Okay," Katara conceded, "So maybe recently that hasn't worked out so well with Tau manipulating the government against us and everything but working with others doesn't always result in bad outcomes like that."

"Yeah, but just think about it," Aang speculated, "For the most part, we worked with the Earth Kingdom government to track down Tau. In that time, Kuei was murdered, you were kidnapped, we almost died in a desert, and the Council of Five briefly thought of us as traitors. Only when you and I decided to do things ourselves and track Tau down to the Southern Air Temple did we actually accomplish something."

Katara pulled back from his embrace to look him in the eye, "We got lucky. You know how close Tau came to releasing the Yanari. He got so close that you had to…"

She cut herself off, knowing that Aang was still upset deep down at having to destroy his own home, and she wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.

"My point is," Katara started once again a few moments later, "We don't know what will happen with some of the decisions we make and it won't help to worry about it. We just need to do what feels like the best choice at the time."

"You just thought of that point of yours a few seconds ago didn't you," Aang smiled and raised an eyebrow at her.

She shrugged one shoulder and let out a small hum, "Yeah, but you get what I'm saying don't you?"

Aang nodded, "I do," he then quickly reconsidered before speaking up again, "Although back before we ended the war we seemed to do pretty well on our own. What Sokka is talking about only really relates to well…everything that happened with Tau."

"Huh," Katara thought for a few seconds before shrugging, "I guess those two years of peace made us lose our touch a little bit."

"Yeah, I guess so," Aang agreed, laughing slightly.

"So are you all good now? You have enough to worry about," Katara told him, "Don't let Sokka's ideas go to your head."

"I'm fine," Aang gave her a soft smile, "Thanks Kat."

"Good," Katara smiled back at him seductively, running a hand along his chest, "Now if we're done with the serious talk, I was kind of hoping that you'd be up for a certain something…"

Aang just let out a small laugh, quickly catching on to what she was suggesting, before pulling her into a kiss that ended up leading to so much more…

* * *

><p>Tau paced back and forth in his cell waiting. Any minute now, he should hear Fei's footsteps coming down the hall and then it would only be a matter of time before he got out of this wretched place. To say he was anxious was…an understatement.<p>

Despite his bending being back to full strength during the past day or so now, Tau decided not to use it for fear of revealing his returned abilities to the guards that passed by his cell periodically. That was harder then he thought. However, if he was being honest with himself, he did cave in and use his bending briefly. Over the past few weeks his hair had grown a little longer and he had also grown a small beard. Just a few hours ago he had used waterbending to form a makeshift mirror as well as a knife to trim himself up a bit. He had gotten rid of the beard completely and though he had cut his hair a little bit, he left it a little longer than what it had been before. While before his hair had been very short, almost nonexistent, now it was long enough to reach the top of his ears. He kind of liked it that way, it was closer to how he had looked before he had been captured by the Fire Nation all those years ago…when his life had been somewhat…normal.

Besides that however, he had not truly manipulated his element ever since his fight with Katara back in the Southern Air Temple. He felt like he had all this energy stored up inside of him and it was just waiting to be released. He wasn't sure how Fei was planning to get him out of here but if there was one thing Tau knew it was that he needed a good fight.

Moments later, he heard the all too familiar footsteps walking down the hall towards his cell and he saw Fei's face looking at him through the cell door's window.

"I thought you might want a change of clothes," Fei told him, sliding some clean clothing through the windows bars, allowing Tau to take them, "That old ragged stuff you're wearing can't be comfortable."

"They smell too," Tau added, seeing Fei turn back around allowing Tau some privacy in undressing to he could put the new clothes on. They were just simple black robes, with black pants to go along with them, similar to what Fei was wearing

"Are you ready?" Fei asked, not yet turning around.

"What do you think?" Tau asked back, bending some water out of the air and onto the handle of the locked door, freezing it, and then shattering it which allowed the door to slowly drift open.

Fei jumped back in surprised as the door suddenly opened up and Tau walked out confidently with a small smile on his face.

"Oh," Fei said, regaining his composure, holding up a small key in his hand, "I was just going to…"

"I needed a little practice," Tau interrupted gently.

"I see," Fei said, watching the man in front of him bend some water around him with a smooth control that was only common in the most powerful of benders. Fei suddenly found himself very nervous. His superiors had told him plenty about Tau, they had whole documents on him. Fei knew everything about him that the White Lotus was able to find out. However, a number of those things included how, besides the Avatar, Tau was possibly the most powerful bender in the world and he was also very manipulative when he wanted to be. A dozen scenarios shot through Fei's head on how this whole thing could go wrong and Tau could once again become a loose cannon as he had been a little over a month ago. Fei's superiors assured him many times before though that they had everything under control. He also couldn't forget that despite Tau's mistrust in almost everyone, he did show respect to people that made it clear that they were trying to help him. Fei felt he fit under that category and since Tau simply stood in front of him without seeing to have any attempts to harm him, it seemed like the Waterbender had no intention of turning against him…yet, at least.

"Okay," Fei began taking a deep breath as he felt Tau's icy blue eyes turn to him, "I have a way to sneak out of here without anyone finding out…"

He stopped when Tau held up a hand in a silent gesture to stop.

"Look Fei," Tau began, evaporating the stream of water that he had been using back into the air, "I appreciate what you and what the rest of your people are doing for me. However, I have been locked up in here for a month and if you think that I am just going to walk out of here as if nothing's happened then you are mistaken."

Fei just smiled and nodded understandingly, "I was told that you wouldn't be the one to let me sneak you out of here. To that end, there is another way we could go about doing this. A way that is a bit more…physical."

"Great," Tau responded, turning to start to make his way down the hall, "Let's get moving then."

"Wait," Fei called, running up to Tau, who stopped and turned to him expectantly.

"What's wrong?" Tau raised an eyebrow.

"Look," Fei started, trying to keep his voice low so as to not alert any other guards that could possible right around the next corner, "I know you probably want nothing more than to beat every guard in this prison to a pulp and then walk out of here like you owned the place," he paused to see if he would get a reaction from Tau but the waterbender just stared at him steadily until he continued, "But we can't do that. For this to work, for you to gain your freedom without being hunted once you get out of here, we have to do things the way that I have planned them out. If you want to storm through this place and fight anyone that gets in our way then fine, I won't stop you. However, you need to follow my lead, I'll lead you where you need to go."

"Well first off," Tau answered back, keeping his voice low as well, as he started walking again "They took something of mine that I would like to get back. Once I have what I want, I'll be happy to follow you wherever it is you want us to go."

"I already have that covered," Fei said, reaching in to his pocket to pull out Avatar Kuruk's necklace as Tau stopped walking and turned around.

Tau's eyes widened slightly upon seeing the necklace.

"I assume you're talking about this," Fei guessed.

Tau slowly reached out and took the necklace out of Fei's hand, turning it over in his palm to look it over before smirking and putting it back around his neck. It felt good to have it back, it felt as if he had just regained a part of himself.

"Thanks," Tau said appreciatively, "Now, where do you need us to go?"

"The armory," Fei answered, as he started to walk down the hallway with Tau falling into step beside him, "Unfortunately it's on the other side of this facility."

"Good," Tau answered simply, "The longer it takes, the more time I have to teach these assholes a lesson."

"Just try not to kill anyone okay?" Fei requested, "My superiors told me that they don't want to see a blood trail in our wake."

"I'll keep that in mind," Tau answered, pulling two streams of water out of the air, and holding them on each side of him as he and Fei turned the corner. Much to his disappointment, there weren't any guards in sight but a few moments later, he heard some footsteps around the next corner and he anxiously picked up the pace.

Fei noticed this and had to walk a little faster to keep up with Tau. At the same time however, as they got closer to the corner, he made sure to stay back a little bit. From what he read about Tau, Fei knew that the Waterbender wouldn't need any help and Fei wouldn't be the one to get in his way.

Sure enough, as they turned the corner they caught two guards casual walking down the dimply lit hallway. Tau simply just kept walking towards them until he was noticed. Upon seeing him the guards seemed startled and they swiftly came to a stop as they both looked at Tau in confusion. Tau never gave them a chance to react and before the guards were even able to recognize him, Fei watched as Tau sent the two streams of water that he had been holding at his side straight at the guards. The two streams knocked both guards off to the side so hard that they made a dent in the wall upon impact before falling to the floor with no sign of moving.

Fei held in a gasp of shock, not expecting the encounter to be over so quickly but Tau looked as if he was just getting started. The Waterbender walked by the two bodies, only sparing them a small glance as he passed them, as he conjured up two more streams of water from the air.

Snapping out of the trance he had briefly found himself in, Fei took his eyes off the two prone bodies to catch up to Tau, who had already turned into the next hallway. Before Fei could reach him, he heard two more loud thuds and he turned the corner to see Tau standing over two more bodies.

Tau looked up, quickly noticing that Fei seemed a little shocked, "I thought you were okay with this?"

"I am," Fei assured, glancing at the two bodies briefly, before looking back at Tau, "I just never expected that you would…be able to do this so easily. I mean, I was told about your abilities but seeing in action is just…"

"Different? Impressive?" Tau offered, creating two more streams of water as he started to move forwards again slowly, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"I'm not surprised," Fei responded slightly amused, catching up to walk beside Tau.

They kept walking down the hall, surprisingly not running into many other guards. The only thing they heard was sounds from the numerous prison cells that they were passing. Fei noticed the look of curiosity on the prisoner's faces as they walked passed their cells. Some begged for Tau and Fei to help them get out to and others just seemed plain crazy. Fei didn't care what Tau had done before he was sent to this prison, he was definitely more sane then most of the people that were held here.

"So you want to tell me how to get to this armory of yours," Tau asked after about a minute, keeping his eyes ahead of him as he looked out for more guards.

"We're on the right trail," Fei answered, "We just keep walking straight down this hallway until we get to the end and then they'll be another hallway to the left."

"Couldn't we theoretically turn left down any off the other paths branching off from this one before that?" Tau asked, glancing down a few hallways that were branching off from the one they were walking in, "They all connect to each other right?"

"We could," Fei responded, giving Tau a questioning look, "Why?"

Tau shrugged, bringing up another topic, "You'd think there would be more guards around here."

"Well it's the night shift," Fei explained, "There is only a few of them patrolling during these hours. Although once they discover the bodies we left back there this whole place would be crawling with them."

"You think that there are some more down the other hallways?" Tau asked.

Fei wasn't really following Tau's line of questioning but he nodded in response any way, "I mean, if they're not here then there probably in the other parts of the facility."

Seconds after hearing that, Tau wordlessly turned left down the next branching off hallway that they came across and Fei instantly realized why Tau had been asking him all the questions.

"You know," Fei said, slightly annoyed, "When I said we can do this the way you wanted to, I didn't mean we could just go out of our way to hunt down everybody here."

"Relax," Tau said evenly, "We're still going to the all-important armory. We're just going my way."

Fei opened his mouth to argue but decided against it. He knew that it would be a losing argument for him. Tau was the one holding the power; he could get rid of Fei whenever he wanted to now that he was released from his cell. Fei assumed that the only reason he wasn't dead or unconscious by now was because the Waterbender was curious as to what he and the rest of the White Lotus wanted. If that was the case, Fei wanted to stay on his good side.

They didn't walk to far down the hallway before the whole prison seemed to come to life. A loud bell echoed through the halls and Fei instantly recognized it as the prisons alarm system. It was just a simple metal bell in the center off the prison, where the warden's office was, and the walls of the prison allowed it to echo throughout the whole place; though the farther you were away from it the quieter it was.

"Someone must have discovered the bodies," Fei told Tau, who simply just nodded with a small smile.

They began to walk at a faster pace and moments later they heard footsteps shuffling not too far from them.

"Are you a Firebender?" Tau asked suddenly, walking faster towards the sound of the footsteps.

"Yeah, why?" Fei asked, "I can't use my bending without seriously hurting these people and I'm not going to do that."

"Fine by me," Tau shrugged, as about half a dozen guards came into view a few dozen feet down the hall from them, "But it's not my problem if one of them gets past me and goes for you."

"I know how to handle myself if I have to," Fei countered, "I'm pretty good with a sword to."

Tau didn't seem to hear him however as he was too busy running forwards as he launched wave after wave of water towards the guards.

When all of them were lying down unconscious at Tau's feet a few moments later, Fei instantly realized that none of the guards here really stood a chance. Tau was too quick and the amount of water he was able to bend from the air was simply overwhelming. The guards never even had time to defend themselves with Earthbending before they were subdued. Granted they weren't as well trained as typical Earthbending soldiers but seeing Tau in action during that brief moment made Fei conclude one thing.

Tau was everything that Fei's superiors had told him he would be. They just needed to convince him to be on their side.

* * *

><p>The warden of the Lake Laogai Prison, Xou, sighed as he stepped out of his office, hearing lots of commotion coming not too far from him. He was a thin old man, assigned to his position in the prison because he absolutely refused to retire from his military life but at the same time he had started to become more of a liability to the military because of his age. He was given the job as the warden in return that he leave the actual military without resistance. At the time he knew he didn't really have a choice, if he refused then they would have simply forced him to retire. He simply chose the lesser of the two evils and accepted the offer. That was a year ago, and now for the first time, something was actually happening.<p>

Xou would have preferred it to be anything but this though. The Council of Five had made it very clear that Tau stayed locked up and away from any other prisoners. Xou wasn't sure why he was so important but now he was starting to see why. Once a few unconscious bodies had been reported to him, he had instantly sounded the alarms, believing that Tau would be back under control in just a few short minutes.

How wrong he had been.

The whole reason he was leaving his cozy little office was because things were getting out of hand. Tau was plowing through his men like they weren't anything at all. Xou could only let that happen for so long before he had to let himself get involved personally. He needed to see why his dozens of guards couldn't put up a decent fight against one Waterbender.

He was a well-trained Earthbender, despite his old age, so he was sure he had nothing to worry about. He motioned for the two guards that were standing outside of his office to follow him and after that all he had to do was follow the sounds of the fighting.

* * *

><p>Fei had almost never been out of breath in his life. This was one of the few exceptions. He didn't know what was worse: that he couldn't keep up with Tau despite the fact the Tau was being regularly occupied by half a dozen guards at a time or that the guards where too weak to slow him down. Either the guards training was really just that terrible or Tau was just, well…that good.<p>

Fei himself had never even been in any danger yet. No one had gotten past the Waterbender. In fact, it all really boiled down to Fei chasing after Tau hallway after hallway, following the trails of unconscious bodies that the other man left in his wake. Fei managed to stay close enough to him that he was able to yell out directions for how to get to the armory and to his credit; Tau was actually listening to him. Now Fei was just wondering how many more guards the warden could possibly throw at them before taking a step back and assessing the situation better. Then again, Fei had met the warden and he hadn't really seemed like the best strategist.

"We almost at the armory," Fei called out to Tau, who was a few dozen feet ahead of him freezing a few of the guards to the wall, "Just take your next left and it's at the end of the hallway."

Tau didn't make any gesture that he heard him but sure enough, he followed the directions Fei gave him and he disappeared out of view.

It took another several seconds for Fei to reach the corner and when he did, he came around it just in time to see Tau side step and duck to avoid two boulders that were bent at him before engulfing the remaining guards with water. They were the last ones to stand between them and the armory and for the first time since the alarms sounded Tau stood still.

Thankful that the Waterbender had actually decided to wait on him, Fei strode over to him, giving the other man an impressed smile.

"You really are everything that I was told you would be," Fei breathed out.

"Well I'm glad I didn't disappoint you," Tau responded in mild sarcasm, not appearing to really care for the complement.

Fei just decided to keep quite as he took the lead and opened up the door to the armory, hearing Tau follow him inside.

"Okay, so this is your plan," Tau said, looking around the room for anything out of the ordinary, "Now what?"

"This room is on the outer edge of this whole facility," Fei began, "if any of these walls were to blow open the lake water would come rushing in. I think you know what to do once that happens. Although I assume you're wondering how we're going to find explosives in here big enough to blow open the…"

"I'm guessing you're going to detonate the blasting jelly sitting right over there," Tau interrupted confidently as he eyes fell on a trio of the explosive barrels that were sitting up against the wall at the far side of the room, "I'm more curious as to why a prison would even need those in here."

"Oh, they weren't here originally," Fei said with a small amount of pride, "You wouldn't believe the amount of things the White Lotus can do without anyone knowing. We smuggled those in earlier today."

"Is this the part where you try to persuade me to join your little club by patronizing it?" Tau raised an eyebrow.

Fei gave him a deadpanned look before shaking his head, "You know what? I'm not even going to try it again. I'll just let the people in charge take care of that part."

"Assuming I even let to take me to said people in charge," Tau corrected, pausing for a slight moment until he saw a look of worry spread across Fei's face before continuing, "Don't worry though. You have me curious. I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't find out what all this was about."

Fei wasn't sure if the other man was being sarcastic or if he was being honest or something in between but he found himself letting out a sigh of relief.

"So are you ready to get out of here," Fei asked, "Do I even need to tell you why we aren't just walking out the front door."

"The explosion is supposed to make it look like I was killed," Tau said simply, "You really think I don't know how this all works do you?"

"My superiors told me to be honest with you and make sure you know what's what," Fei explained, "I'm just following orders."

"Well stop," Tau told him, gaze turning to the door and out to the hall that they came from, hearing several footsteps coming towards them, "It's making you look stupid."

Fei chose to ignore his comment as his gaze shifted down the hall as well, seeing about two dozen soldiers come into view. He also noticed that the warden was among them.

"You might want to do your thing now," Tau suggesting, eyes narrowing at the large grouping running towards them, "Unless of course you want to watch me fight all of them as well."

Fei nodded, aiming one of his hands towards the barrels of blasting jelly as a large blast of fire shot out of his palm.

* * *

><p>Xou let his men run ahead of him as Tau came in site and there was also a man that he didn't quite recognize standing alongside him. He instantly connected the pieces and realized that this other man must have freed Tau. For what purpose, Xou didn't have a clue and frankly, he didn't really care. He just needed to get Tau back to where he belonged. He stood back, watching his guards get closer and closer to the armory.<p>

Suddenly however, a loud explosion rocked his ears and next thing he knew, Tau and the other figure vanished into the flames and in their place, water from the lake gushed into the prison. Instant chaos ensured as he saw his mean turning back around from the now destroyed armory to run from the wall of water washing towards them.

Xou kept his cool though. It was something he learned throughout all the years he had been in the military. He stood his ground, raised his arms and brought a wall of earth up to create a new wall between his guards and the oncoming water. There was a loud thud on the other side of the newly created wall as the water crashed against it but other than that there was complete silence. The armory was gone, and so was about a dozen feet of the hallway leading to it. Thankfully though his men seemed alright, if a little shaken up, and to him that was what mattered.

Unfortunately, he was sure that the armory would be unsalvageable, there would be no way to drain the water out of it but they could always replace it. The thing that brought a smile to Xou's face as he leaned up against the wall while everyone around him regained their composure was that the spirits had offered them their aid. That was the only explanation that he could think of as to how the whole room had suddenly exploded since there were no explosives of any kind in the prison. Though it may not have been his doing, Tau did not escape. Xou didn't let down his nation by letting him get loose and he felt a sense of relief in that.

There was no way Tau could have survived.

* * *

><p>Xou couldn't have been more wrong. It took only half a minute for Tau to climb up onto the shoreline of Lake Laogai with Fei following close behind him. It hadn't been clear to Xou, but Fei had used his firebending to shield the two of them from the explosion and then once the water had rushed in, Tau had taken hold of Fei's arm and used waterbending to propel them through the water and up to the shore.<p>

Tau swiftly pulled the water out of each of their clothes to dry them off quicker before looking around. The moon was high in the night sky and there was an eerie silence stretching over the city. No one was around to see them. Suddenly, he saw a bright light appear off to his right from the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see that Fei had conjured up a small flame in his palm to help them see easier.

"Well I thought that went rather well," the firebender said, walking up to him.

"It did," Tau nodded, squinting a little as his eyes adjusted to the light. The Lake Laogai prison was rather dark and it had been a month since he had seen anything as bright as the small flame that Fei held. It took some getting used to. He could only imaging what it would be like when daylight arrived. Hopefully, he got used to seeing light before then.

"Now we just need to walk up the shore and onto the city streets and there should be someone waiting for us not to far from here," Fei told him.

"So it isn't just you," Tau stated, "there were other people tasked with getting me out of here."

"The Order of the White Lotus believed that breaking you out was one of our top priorities. There are actually two others that we will be meeting up with us," Fei explained with a small smile, "You'd be happy to hear that one of them is a Grand Lotus, the highest rank in our organization."

"I'm assuming that he or she would be explaining everything to me then?" Tau asked.

"You'd have to ask him," Fei clarified, leading Tau up the shoreline, "I don't even know the full details on why they wanted you. The only thing they told me was that they needed your help and to get you out at any cost."

Tau just let out a contemplative hum in response as he followed Fei off of the shore and onto the one of the many, now empty, streets of Ba Sing Se. It didn't take him long to spot a small carriage with two ostrich horses to pull it along waiting a little way off. It was tucked away in the alley between two buildings, shrouded by darkness.

"I think I found your friend," Tau said, causing Fei to turn and look at him.

"Where?"

Tau pointed towards the carriage and Fei eye's followed Tau's finger and instantly spotted it as well.

"That's it alright," Fei began to towards it, "Come on."

Tau obeyed, curious as to who would be meeting them in there. As they got closer, the door on the side of the carriage opened and an old, somewhat heavy, man stepped out. Tau walked closer, stopping a few feet away from the newcomer, noticing that Fei decided to stay a few respectful feet behind them. One of the old man's hands came up to stroke his beard for a few moments before his golden eyes fell on Tau, narrowing slightly.

It took Tau a few moments but eventually, he recognized the man that stood before him. He had never met him before but it would be an understatement to say that he was well known. The man before him was practically a legend.

"Hello Tau. I never thought I would actually get the chance to meet you in person," the man said, golden eyes looking over Tau very closely as if to make sure the waterbender could be trusted, "I am General Iroh."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so for those of you that care about lemons and such...sorry about the small tease towards the beginning. <strong>**My original intention was to have one but then the chapter got to the length that it was and a lemon really isn't necessary since we just had one in chapter 5...so I decided not to do it.** **I also think that in a fic that revolves a lot around plot, having a lot of lemons everywhere can cheapen it.** **There will be other lemons but I'm going to include them into parts that would actually be meaningful.**

**On another note, it should be pretty clear by now that the Order of the White Lotus will be featured quite a bit in this story. However, we never really learned all that much about it on the show. All that we really know is that the Grand Lotus seems to be the highest rank in it so they are the ones in charge, and its mixed with people from all the natio****n. Obviously, that is really not enough information to have a large plot revolving around them so I'll be expanding on it**** and explaining it in more detail then the show did. A lot of that will be coming up in the next few chapters so...yay?**

**Anyway, let me know your thoughts and I'll see you all next Friday!  
><strong>


	8. Reunited

**This chapter wraps up the whole Tau escaping from prison bit and it also introduces a new story arc that the Gaang will be dealing with for the next several chapters. With that in mind...enjoy.:)**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Avatar**

* * *

><p>"The Dragon of the West," Tau smiled knowingly, eyes on the older man before him, "With your high status and all, it's only fair for me to assume that you are the Grand Lotus that Fei mentioned I would be meeting."<p>

"Mmm," Iroh hummed in confirmation, looking passed Tau to Fei in slight disapproval.

Fei just smiled apologetically and Tau could only assume that the Firebender wasn't supposed to have told him as much information as he had. Tau kept that in mind. That meant that he had more knowledge of the situation then he was supposed to have. He could use that to his advantage if he needed to.

"You know," Tau spoke up again to break the silence that had fallen onto the small group, "I would think that you would be a little happier to see me General Iroh. Being the leader of the White Lotus, this whole thing must have been your doing."

"It wasn't my choice to free you," Iroh stated clearly, keeping his voice steady and even, "In fact, if I had it my way, you would have never gotten out of there."

"So there are others in charge then," Tau speculated, "Others that must have wanted me out and you were simply overruled."

Iroh didn't say anything, mentally cursing himself for saying too much. Tau's speculation was completely true and Tau had learned that from just a small comment Iroh had made that was supposed to make Tau feel a little on edge. In reality, it just gave Tau what he wanted…more information.

"I can't blame you though for being against my freedom," Tau continued, smile mischievously, "If I recall correctly Fire Lord Zuko is your nephew and surly you heard about the little run in I had with him. How is he by the way? Last time I saw him he seemed a little…distressed."

"He's fine, no thanks to you," Iroh answered back evenly, narrowing his eyes at Tau in order to intimidate him into keeping his mouth shut.

"Actually, if it weren't for me he'd be dead," Tau told him, not fazed in the slightest, "You see, one of my partners was prepared to shoot down the war balloon that rescued him straight out of the sky which would have resulted in his death. I stopped that from happening. If anything, you should be thanking me for saving your nephew's life."

Iroh tried to keep his emotions at bay, seeing that Tau was trying to bait him. He took a few deep breaths before addressing the Waterbender sternly.

"I know what you are trying to do Tau," he said, "Apart from your waterbending, manipulation has always been your strong suit. I'm not falling for it," he paused, motion to the open door of the carriage, "If you would please just get inside, we can be on our way."

Tau stayed still for several moments, weighing his options, before conceding. "This should be interesting," he stated, climbing into the carriage.

Once he was in, Iroh turned to Fei, who had been keeping a few respectful feet away during the whole discussion, "Fei take the reins, you know where we need to go," Iroh told him, "make sure we get there by midday."

"Yes sir," Fei said distractedly, thoughts on the conversation he had just heard but nonetheless he climbed up onto the front of the carriage and took the reins to direct the Ostrich Horses.

Tau watched Iroh climb inside of the carriage while closing the door behind him. The inside of the carriage had two rows of seats, one on each side. Iroh sat down opposite of Tau and a few moments later, the Waterbender felt the carriage lurch forwards.

"Where are we going?" Tau asked.

Iroh was silent for a couple of minutes and Tau just assumed that the elderly Firebender didn't want to answer him. However, after those couple minutes of silence, the Grand Lotus finally spoke up, seemingly deciding that it would be best to play nice with Tau.

"We're going to a small isolated clearing far outside of the walls of Ba Sing Se," Iroh explained, keeping his voice respectable, "From there, we'll be meeting someone at midday who will then take us to a small docking port on the East coast of the Earth Kingdom. That's all that I will tell you for now."

"Well that was more then I was expecting," Tau shrugged, leaning back in his seat, "If you're not going to tell me about why I am hear then at least tell me about the Order of the White Lotus."

"Everything will be explained eventually," Iroh told him, "For now you'll just have to trust us."

"Trust?" Tau cocked an eyebrow, "Fei hinted that your organization knew a lot about me. You should know that I don't do things based on trust. If you're not going to be more open with me then there is no reason why I should be here. I'm free now and you and I both know how powerful I am. What's stopping me from getting up, taking this carriage and leaving you and Fei to rot on the side of the street?"

"Nothing is for now," Iroh stated simply, "Just know that the person we are meeting up with is someone that I know you would really like to see. If you do what you just threatened me with, then you'll miss out on a chance to be reunited with someone that you cared deeply about. It's your choice Tau."

Tau watched Iroh for several moments as the older man calmly sat in his seat, looking out the small slits on the doors that served as windows. Tau realized that he was serious. If he decided to put his threat into action, Iroh wasn't going to make an effort to stop him. Who could be this person be that the older man was talking about though? Tau thought back to all the people in his life and as far as he knew, none of them was part of the Order of the White Lotus. Tau decided to just go along with things for now and simply sat and waited, trying to ignore the small, triumphant smile that Iroh wore on his face.

It took hours before Tau finally felt the carriage stop, he felt sore all over from the lack of movement. Needless to say, he was grateful when Fei opened up one of the doors, letting sunlight shine into the carriage, momentarily blinding Tau.

"We're here sir," Fei addressed Iroh, "and I can see another carriage heading towards us off in the distance. It looks like she will be right on time."

_She?_ Tau questioned to himself.

"That's good," Iroh smiled, stepping out of the carriage and onto the rocky ground, "Nice work Fei."

"Thank you sir," Fei nodded.

Tau stepped out a few moments latter, shielding his eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight. Once they did, he took a look around him and was surprised to see that where they were was incredibly…dull.

It was just an open rocky field with nothing else in sight, save for the carriage that was a few hundred yards away from them.

Iroh walked over, and made some motions in front of the Ostrich Horses pulling their carriage and suddenly the Ostrich Horses took off going back the way they came.

"What did you just do?" Tau questioned as he watched them go.

"They are smart animals and we no longer need their assistance," Iroh explained, "They are going back to Ba Sing Se."

"And I'm guessing there is a reason why we're going to be getting on an entirely different carriage instead of using the same one?" Tau turned his gaze back to the second carriage that was getting closer to them.

"The dock we will be using is a shipping port," Iroh explained, "They only allow certain people to use it. Our agent that you will be meeting in a few moments commandeered the carriage from the docks and we will be using it to gain access to them."

"So she stole it," Tau said.

"Borrowed temporarily," Iroh corrected.

"That's just a way to make it seem nicer," Tau retorted.

As the carriage began to reach them, Fei walked up to greet whoever it was that was directing the Ostrich horses pulling it. Iroh followed Fei along, motioning Tau to come as well. The sunlight blocked Tau from getting a clear view of the women on top of the carriage and he anxiously walked closer to get a better look.

The women smiled and gave small nods to Fei and Iroh before her gaze fell on Tau. Tau wasn't able to see it but her features suddenly lit up with happiness and she quickly jumped off the carriage. Before Tau was able to even register who it was, she ran up and threw her arms around him. His eyes widened in slight surprise and he didn't know what brought him to do it but his arms instinctively returned the gesture.

"Tau, I'm so glad you alright," she whispered, pulling back a few feet so he could finally get a good look at her, "It's been far too long."

Tau's eyes instantly widened further as he quickly recognized who she was. She had been younger when he had last seen her, fourteen to be precise and from the looks of her, she had grown up to be a stunning young woman. She must be somewhere around twenty six by now…just four or five years younger than he was.

She had lightly tanned skin, straight brown hair that came down a few inches passed her soldiers, and her deep green eyes seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. When he noticed her wide smile that she was directing at him, he couldn't help but smile back as he was hit full force with the knowledge that he had someone important just walk back into his life.

This was the girl that he had met before he had been captured by the Fire Nation. This was the girl that he had been able to relate to and had grown to know so well over the course of only a few weeks. More importantly, this was the girl who he had saved from being taken advantage of by three Earth Kingdom soldiers in some dark alley…and that experience had also led to the groundwork for why he had tried to release the Yanari. She was the one in his thoughts when he reminded himself why the world needed changing. No one should have had to suffer what she did.

Tau felt his heart beating loudly inside of his chest as he gazed back into her green eyes, barely finding himself able to say her name.

"Miyumi?"

* * *

><p>Sokka grunted in disgust as he leaned back against the edge of Appa's saddle. They were now flying south, straight above the Kiglar Mountain Chain. The mountain peaks stood above the clouds, giving off a somewhat beautiful and peaceful view. However, that was all overshadowed by what Sokka was seeing across the saddle.<p>

He didn't know how he hadn't noticed it the day before but Aang and Katara were close…closer than normal. At first he had chalked it up to the fact that they had been recently engaged but his instincts told him that it was because of something else. They were being a little more touchy feely with each other. Sure, they had always been like that but they at least usually kept most of it to themselves. Now they didn't seem to care that he and Suki were sitting just a few feet away.

Suki didn't seem to mind, she was just minding her own business, gazing over the saddle and into the clouds. Katara was his sister though…it was hard for him to ignore Aang and Katara cuddling and giving light kisses to each other on the opposite side of the saddle just a few feet away from him. What happened besides them getting engaged a couple of days ago that would cause them to act like this?

Sokka's eyes widened as one possibility instantly popped into his head

_No, _he tried to tell himself_, no, there's no way they did…that._

"I can't believe you two would do that!" he blurted out, unable to stop himself.

Aang and Katara instantly broke away to look at him and even Suki turned her head to look at him in confusion.

"Do what Sokka?" Aang asked, truly not knowing what Sokka was talking about. Katara however, instantly realized that Sokka had somehow found out that she and Aang had taken their relationship to the next level and she felt a small blush rise to her cheeks.

"You guys did it didn't you?" Sokka stated bluntly, pointing an accusing finger at the couple.

Katara stayed quiet, mentally telling Aang through their connection to stay quiet as well. He seemed to get the message as he closed his mouth right after he had opened it to respond.

Sokka just stared at the silent couple before reconsidering, "Ah, never mind. You two wouldn't actually do that."

Satisfied that Sokka had dropped the subject, the young couple scooted a little closer to each other once again. It wasn't even a second later when Sokka seemed to once again change his mind.

"You did do it," Sokka guessed, not seeming angry but just simply looking like he was searching for an answer of any kind.

Suki raised an eyebrow at him. She had suspected that Aang and Katara had done exactly what Sokka had accused of them. After all, the subject had been brought up during her girl's day out with Katara and Mai. For the couples sake though, she also chose to keep her mouth shut.

"Who am I kidding," Sokka waved his hands dismissively, "Aang probably doesn't even know about that stuff. There is no way you two could have…"

He paused for a moment before he narrowed his eyes on Aang.

"Unless you know more then you let on, airhead," Sokka mused, and Aang and Katara exchanged an amused glance before looking back at a rather distraught Sokka.

"Okay, that look meant something. You two are hiding something," Sokka stated confidently, causing the rest of the group to let out a giggle before Sokka suddenly threw his hands in air, seemingly giving up on trying to get an answer out of them, "Oh, would you just tell me already!"

Katara opened her mouth to speak when she suddenly felt Aang leave her side, causing her to turn and see him jump down to Appa's head and taking the reins.

"Aang?" she questioned, looking over the saddle and down to her fiancé who seemed very distracted by something, "Aang? What is it?"

"Do you feel that?" Aang murmured, eyes facing downwards towards something that was somewhere below them.

"Feel what?" Katara asked, noticing that Aang was guiding Appa downwards.

"Aang, not to tell you how to guide your bison or anything," Sokka said, crawling up to the front of the saddle next to Katara, "But last time something like this happened we ended up stranded in a swamp for two days. So maybe you might want to…I don't know…fly us away from whatever it is that you are sensing?"

"I know what I'm doing Sokka," Aang responded, eyes not moving, "With the swamp something was calling to me…this is different. I just feel a lot of energy coming from something down there."

"Like spiritual energy?" Katara asked.

Aang hummed and nodded as Appa broke through the clouds.

"It's coming from something inside of the mountains," Aang told them, guiding Appa towards the energy that he was feeling.

"Figures," Sokka sighed, "we're supposed to be on our way home but of course something just has to come up and stop us."

"You always have to jump to the negatives, don't you?" Suki jumped in as she joined the group at the front of Appa's saddle.

"Mysterious spiritual energy coming from the inside of a mountain doesn't scream something bad to you?" Sokka questioned.

"I would just like to actually see what it is before jumping to conclusions," Suki told him.

About a minute later, Aang set Appa down on a small plateau about midway up the mountains before hoping off. He heard his three companions jump off of the saddle behind him but he was too focused on what he was seeing in front of him to acknowledge them at all.

Katara walked up beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly to snap him out of the small trance he was in. He shook his head sharply as he snapped out of it and turned his head towards her, giving her a somewhat embarrassed smile.

"Sorry," Aang rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before looking ahead of him again along with the rest of the group.

They had landed at what appeared to be an entrance to a cave. It was dark though, nearly pitch black, and the group was only able to see a few feet inside of it. Using his earthbending, Aang was able to get a better idea of what the cave actually held inside of it. It was more like a labyrinth of tunnels crisscrossing each other. Deep inside of the cave, Aang could feel that there was a small open space that the tunnels seemed to lead to. On top of that, with the spiritual energy that was coming from inside of it, Aang had a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Okay, so who wants to volunteer to go in first," Sokka joked.

After a couple seconds of consideration, Aang took a deep breath and lit a small fire in his palm before walking forwards slowly towards the cave. He felt Katara following him and inwardly thanked her for not making him go in alone. Sokka seemed content with sitting back and seeing how things played out and Suki seemed to be thinking the same.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Katara asked, coming to walk up beside him as they began to make their way into the cave."

"Something's going on here," Aang answered, keeping his eyes straight ahead, "And since it seems like it's something spiritual then as the Avatar it's my job to find out what it is."

Katara nodded, walking a little closer to him as she felt a little unnerved by how dark it was as they moved further into the cave, "I'm with you every step of the wa-."

She was cut off by the sound of the echo of a loud explosion coming back the way they came. Thinking that something happened to Sokka, the couple gasped and instantly ran back. It took them several seconds to make their way back out into the sunlight but to their relief Sokka and Suki both looked fine. However, they were standing at the edge of the plateau and their attention seemed to be fixed on something off to the distance.

Aang and Katara exchanged glances before walking up to join their other two companions.

"What happened?" Katara asked.

Suki pointed forwards and Aang and Katara followed her finger to find a small city off in the distance. They were so fixated on the cave earlier that they hadn't even noticed it before. Something was clearly wrong though.

A large cloud of smoke rose up from one corner of the city and Katara could only assume that that was the source of the explosion that she and Aang had heard.

"C'mon," Aang told them worriedly, running back to hop up to Appa's head, "We have to go see what's wrong. People could be hurt."

After a few seconds of continuing to stare at the cloud of smoke rising into the sky, the rest of the group obeyed, climbing up onto Appa's saddle as the bison took to the skies again to make the short flight to the city.

Katara couldn't keep her eyes off of it the whole way there and as they got closer, she could clearly see a crowd of people gathered not too far from the source of the fire.

Katara felt that she knew one thing for certain. The fact that this city was so close the spiritual energy that Aang felt meant that this couldn't be a coincidence. The two things had to be related in one way or another.

* * *

><p>Fei and Iroh watched from several feet away as Tau and Miyumi spoke to one another, smiles evident on both of their faces.<p>

"You know," Fei said, a little shocked, "After watching that guy single handedly take on several dozen eathbenders last night…I'm actually kind of surprised to see him acting, well…normal."

Iroh just let out a contemplative hum, eyes watching Tau's every move to make sure that he wasn't intending to harm Miyumi. Iroh had known the young women for several years now, though he hadn't interacted with her much until recently, and if Tau did anything to harm her then he wouldn't hesitate to attack the Waterbender even if that meant ruining the plan the Order of the White Lotus had made. To his surprise however, the way Tau was acting towards her almost made Iroh forget about all of the other things the Waterbender had done in recent months. Iroh had made sure Miyumi knew everything about what Tau had done before he allowed her to take part in freeing him from prison but after hearing about it all she didn't seem to care one bit. All she seemed to care about was that she would finally be able to see the one of the few people she had been able to trust. Iroh knew her history with Tau; he knew how close they'd been. Even though they had only known each other for a little less than a month the two had connected and had nearly become family. Iroh supposed that if you had that kind of relationship with someone, then you'd be able to look past the wrongs they had committed. In the end, he decided that he would allow her to decide whether or not to still trust Tau after all these years. It was only fair and he trusted her judgment. Still, that didn't mean Iroh needed to trust Tau with her…not yet at least.

"Is something wrong?" Fei asked him, noticing that he was in deep thought.

"That man," Iroh started slowly, "He nearly killed my nephew and the Avatar, he killed Earth King Kuei, and he spent the last several months trying to release a group of ancient spirits that could very well be the end of us all…and we reward him by breaking him out of prison and reuniting him with the person he cares about most. I don't like it."

Fei nodded, "Well at least it makes Miyumi happy. I haven't seen her smile this much in a long time."

"How long do you think that will last though?" Iroh questioned, "The Tau she knew years ago is gone. That man is not the one she cared about."

"Maybe that's not completely true," Fei speculated, gazing at the couple that didn't even seem to realize they had a small audience, "Maybe the old Tau is not completely gone. Maybe he just buried deep inside of there."

Iroh let out another hum, "Maybe."

"All I know is that maybe her being around will do him some good," Fei continued, "I mean, he could have killed me at any point and I'm still standing here so that has to mean that he is not completely insane."

"We'll just see how things work out," Iroh concluded for him.

Unaware of the discussion going on several feet away from him, Tau kept his eyes focused on Miyumi, who gave him a warm, welcoming smile.

"I don't understand," Tau said at a loss for words for the first time in a while, "What are you doing here? How…how do you know them?" he questioned, briefly looking at Fei and Iroh before turning his gaze back to the women before him.

"It a long story Tau," she answered honestly, "A lot has changed since I last saw you."

"Yeah," Tau agreed, not really knowing how to continue. Did she know what he had been doing for the past several months? Surly Iroh or someone else would have told her. Part of him was torn at bringing the subject up now or waiting until they had a little more privacy.

She also seemed to not really know how to continue. Her right hand clutch her left elbow, and she looked away from him a little shyly, though he could still see that same happiness in her eyes that she had held when she had first seen him just minutes ago.

"So…how have you been?" he spoke up, cursing himself that he had decided to result to one of the most obvious forms of small talk.

Nonetheless, she let her smile widen, before her eyes turned back to him, "Fine I guess. I mean…things haven't been exactly flowers and sunshine but…well, I get by and working for the White Lotus does have its benefits."

"So you're not just here by coincidence," Tau stated, "They sent you."

She reached a hand up to tuck a few strands of hair behind her ear before shaking her head slightly, "Iroh and the others were actually against me coming but, well…I've learned quite a few things from when I last saw you and I can be pretty demanding if I want something. I'm not as helpless anymore…I made sure of that."

A frown shone on her features and Tau instantly realized that that all too important night where he had saved her all those years ago still lingered in her mind. Did he really expect her to forget about it? What she experienced would probably be stuck with her forever, there was no forgetting it and for about the third time in the past few minutes, he was at a loss for what to do. Back then he would hold her and comfort her until she was able to take her mind off of it but now…would it be weird to do that? It had been years since they have seen each other. She seemed to notice his confliction and she reached a hand out to rest it on his arm reassuringly.

"You don't have to worry about it. I'm alright, it's just…" she started but then seemed to quickly reconsider, "We should really wait until we have a little more privacy before we talk about all this."

"Agreed," Tau nodded, glancing over at Iroh in Fei who had both began to walk back over to them, "You're friends are coming back anyway."

She turned to see them as well and whispered to him so they couldn't here, "Don't worry though. I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you but we'll have time tonight to talk. Trust me."

"You know I do," Tau answered simply. He meant it to, even after all this time. He felt a little reassured by that. Maybe reconnecting with her wouldn't be as hard as he thought. By looking at the gentle but confident look on her face, he could tell that she was thinking a similar thing.

"We need to get moving," Iroh told them once he and Fei reached them, "We need to get to the docks by nightfall."

Tau was about to make things difficult and question why they had to do that but with Miyumi being here now…he didn't want her to see the new side of him until they talked about things. So instead he kept his mouth shut, letting Miyumi speak up.

"It's only a few hours away and I didn't have any trouble getting this thing," she gestured to the carriage, "They should let us inside the docks without any problem."

"And a ship is waiting?" Iroh asked.

Miyumi nodded, "We have a few more agents standing by on it. They're waiting for us…passing off as dock workers so no one questions why they are there. It should be smooth sailing."

"You've done well Miyumi, as always," Iroh complemented, "You and Fei take the reins, I want to speak with Tau in private."

A look of disappointment flashed across her face but she quickly hid it before complying. She hopped back up to the carriage, with Fei right behind her, and took the reins to guide the Ostrich Horses.

Tau glanced at her as she settled on the seat before reluctantly climbing back into the carriage, narrowing his eyes at Iroh as he climbed in behind him before shutting the door.

"I know when I'm being manipulated," Tau told him, though his tone held no anger in it, "So don't think you're fooling me in any way."

"What do you mean?" Iroh feigned innocents as they felt the carriage begin to move forwards.

"Miyumi said she persuaded you to allow her to come here," Tau started, "but I know it's more than that. No matter how secretive this Order of the White Lotus of yours is, I know that you guys have similar ranks like any government would have. She would only be here if you allowed her to be and it wasn't just her persuasion that made your decision."

"What are you suggesting?" Iroh asked neutrally.

"She's here to make sure I stay around," Tau told him simply, "You needed a way to make sure I don't give you or any of your friends a hard time and having her around is the best way to make sure that happens."

Iroh smiled triumphantly gazing Tau in the eye, "Well you'd be right about that…and it worked, didn't it?"

Tau just grunted and leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed, "You're lucky that I'm happy to see her again or this would be going very differently."

"Of course," Iroh humored him, "You would have just killed Fei and I and then walked out of here."

"You think I'm joking," Tau raised an eyebrow.

"Tau," Iroh shook his head, "You may be powerful and manipulative but with age comes wisdom. You were going to come along with us either way just to quell your curiosity."

"Well I'm cooperating…much against my better judgment," Tau told him, slightly changing the subject, "Trust is hard to come by with me and I'm assuming you guys want my help with something. If this little partnership is going to work then I need to know you aren't going to stab me in the back the second I turn around."

"You want information?" Iroh guessed.

"Just about your organization in general," Tau elaborated, "You've made it pretty clear that you aren't going to tell me my involvement in any of this until we meet up with the other people in charge…which brings me to my first question."

Iroh was silent as he contemplated for a few moments, weighing the positives and negatives of telling Tau, before nodding, "Very well, we'll do you wish to know."

"How is the White Lotus run?" Tau shrugged, "What does it do?"

Iroh thought the questions over, wanting to get a little speech memorized in his head, before he spoke, "Besides me, there are a few others in charge who all share the rank of Grant Lotus. We oversee almost everything that the organization does and we take a majority vote; which for the record, is the only reason you are here now was because I was overruled by the others."

"Good for me then," Tau jutted in.

"Besides that," Iroh continued, ignoring Tau's comment, "The Order is split up into two major groups. There is the peaceful side of it, which is the part that most people would hear about if they heard anything about us at all…and then there is the side the Fei and Miyumi are a part of."

"And what's that?" Tau raised an eyebrow, taking all of the information in.

"The closest thing to compare it to would be like the Dai Li that used to run Ba Sing Se," Iroh told him, "They are highly trained agents that do…the more physically demanding, more dangerous, things."

"I thought the White Lotus was a peacekeeping organization," Tau interrupted.

"It is," Iroh affirmed, "Everything we do is to help keep the balance of the world, much like the Avatar. Unlike you, we don't go around assassinating people to get our way," Iroh paused for a second, watching Tau roll his eyes, before continuing, "We plant our agents into positions that could help the world's government. The agents could be acting as part of the military or even in a political office. All of them are skilled fighters and they allow us to get information from all over the world. We know things that could start a war between the three nations."

"And Miyumi is part of that group?" Tau asked, wanting to know a little more about her.

The older man nodded, "You'd have to talk to her about her side of things. It's not my place to speak. I will say though that she is one of our best agents. She's been with us for years."

"You didn't force into your little club did you?" Tau narrowed his eyes threateningly.

"No of course not," Iroh shook his head, "We don't force any one to join us. We find someone that has potential and then we offer them an invitation. Whether they accept or not is completely voluntary."

Tau nodded and sat back relaxed, somewhat relieved that Miyumi wasn't forced into her current lifestyle.

"Is there anything else?" Iroh asked watching for his reaction to the information.

Tau shook his head, making a mental note to himself to make sure to talk to Miyumi about how she got involved once they had some alone time. Going by what she said, that would be sometime tonight.

He'd be lying to himself if he said he wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

><p><strong>For those that don't quite remember who Miyumi is...I don't blame you. Of course, being the author, I was able to remember her but even I had to go back and find out what her name was again. Anyways, for those of you that don't remember, her story was explained by Tau back in chapter 15 of Reawakening. Her story was gone over again briefly here but that chapter 15 is a little more detailed.<strong>

**In addition to that, Iroh explained some part of the White Lotus at the end. The peaceful side he was talking about would be like that one guy that helped him and Zuko get passports to Ba Sing Se in 'The Desert'. The group of agents would be like the guys that took back Ba Sing Se. So that's my logic for why there are two sides of it. The show featured the White Lotus doing a couple different things so I figured they'd have a few groups of people going on to do different stuff.  
><strong>

**As always, let me know what you think, thoughts, criticisms...whatever it may be, and chapter 9 will be up next Friday! See you then!  
><strong>


	9. The Mystery of Mogdashu

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar**

* * *

><p>Mogdashu was just a small city in its own little pocket of the Earth Kingdom. If you could even call it a city that is; it wasn't much bigger than a large town. For the most part, it was a peaceful place to live.<p>

However, as Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki walked through the streets, they got an entirely different impression. Things seemed to be in chaos. There were groups of people stampeding through the streets in order to see what all the commotion was about and the group had to push their way through the crowds to get a look for themselves. Everyone seemed too preoccupied to even notice that the Avatar was right beside them.

The fire that had started in the city had died down by the time Aang and his friend's had gotten there but now there seemed to be another problem entirely. When the group of friends got to the source of it all, they saw exactly what was happening. Two Earth Kingdom soldiers that were assigned to guard the city held another man to the ground with a much older looking man, who had a bald head and a short grey beard, standing above him. The rubble of whatever building it was that had been burned to the ground could be seen behind them.

"I swear I didn't do it!" the pinned man yelled out, "Let me go!"

"I have five other people telling me that they saw you, and only you, set fire to the blacksmith's shop," the older man told him.

"Well then they must be lying or something," the other man told him, "What reason would I have to do this."

Katara rose an eyebrow at this whole exchanged. The pinned man on the ground seemed to be genuinely confused.

"Everyone in this city knows that you have a grudge against the shop's owner," the older man argued, "I doubt anyone here is surprised by any of this."

The man that was pinned on the ground kept quiet, seemingly having lost the will to argue back and the older man just slowly shook his head at him in disappointment before turning his attention to the two soldiers holding him.

"Lock him up with the others," the older man ordered, "And someone please disperse this crowd."

As the two soldiers carried the man off to what Katara assumed was the city's jail, a few more soldiers came and began to usher the crowd away from the scene. Slowly but surely everyone began to go back to their daily routine, leaving only Katara, Aang, Sokka, Suki, and the older man who seemed to have some sort of position of power in the city.

It wasn't long before the old man saw them and his faced brightened with curiosity as he slowly came over to them.

"You're the Avatar aren't you?" he questioned, and Aang quickly nodded as the old man spoke the next words with relief, "I'm so glad you're here. My name is Chao and I'm the ruler of this small city. When we sent a distress call to Ba Sing Se, we definitely did not expect them to be sending the Avatar."

The group of friends exchanged confused glances.

"Um, not to be rude but what are you talking about?" Aang asked.

"Yeah," Katara continued, "We don't know about any distress call. We were just in the area and we saw the fire so we thought we'd check it out."

"So you didn't get our message?" the older man asked.

"We didn't even know you sent one," Aang told him.

"Mmm, I see," Chao stated, a hand coming up to stroke his beard before he let out a smile, "Well in any event you're here now so maybe you can help us."

"With what?" Sokka jumped in for the first time, "It looks like you have everything under control."

"What you just saw was one event in a series of disasters," Chao told him solemnly, "After everything that has happened, people are scared, terrified even. It's taken everything I have to just maintain order and peace around here."

"I don't understand," Aang looked around and all he saw was a relatively calm city with no signs of other damage, "What has been going on here that has everyone so afraid?"

Chao was quite for a few moments before he spoke up again, "It's a little difficult to explain. It's probably best that I show you. If you could follow…"

"Avatar! Avatar!" a sudden voice interrupted him and the group turned to see a much younger looking man with short brown hair running through the street towards them.

"It's such a pleasure to finally meet you," he said, gripping Aang's arm in a way that was similar to how water tribe men would greet each other, "It's not every day someone could say that they have met a living legend in person."

"Um, thanks," Aang said in confusion, as the man let go of his arm, "It's nice to meet you to."

"Molu," Chao suddenly spoke up, "I'm in the middle of something with the Avatar and his friends."

The energetic man, who was apparently named Molu, suddenly stepped back and held his hands up defensively, "Sorry sir. I didn't mean to. I was just…I'll just go."

Then, as quickly as he came, the man left, leaving Aang and his friends scratching their heads in confusion.

"Well that was random," Sokka spoke up after several seconds.

"At least he was friendly though," Suki added.

"That was Molu," Chao explained, "He is one of the city's messenger boys and he was also the one tasked with delivering the distress call to Ba Sing Se. He came back earlier than expected, saying that he had met up with a group of people that were also heading in that direction for a similar reason. When I questioned him, he said that the people he met offered to deliver the message for him so he gave them the letter we wrote to the Earth King before coming back here. He came back about a week ago."

"Well maybe that's why we never got your message then," Katara surmised, "It probably arrived after we left the city."

"You don't understand though," Chao told her, "Ba Singe Se is a two week trip there and back and we had sent him out three weeks ago when things here started to get bad. The timeline of his story doesn't match up. If what he is saying is true then he should have gotten back much earlier. Not to mention he has changed a little ever since he returned."

"How so?" Aang raised an eyebrow.

"He's more upbeat," Chao shrugged before continuing; "Now he's a good kid which is why I haven't given him a hard time about his story not seeming quite right but I have a few soldiers watching him closely and the weird thing is that Molu would sometimes go missing for hours at a time before suddenly appearing again and acting like he never left."

"Well that's odd," Sokka said thoughtfully, "And he didn't act like that before he left to deliver the distress call?"

"No, but compared to everything else that goes on around here…what is happening with him seems like the least of our worries," Chao said, "Which brings me back to where we were before. I need to show you what I am talking about."

The old man motioned the group to follow him and as they walked through the streets Katara leaned closer to Aang and whispered, "You think this has something to do with the spirit cave we saw?"

"Part of me hopes it doesn't," Aang told he before sighing, "I wouldn't be surprised if it does though."

Katara could feel the small worry coming from him. There wasn't much she could do for comfort as the followed Chao through the streets so she settled with lacing her fingers with his own as they walked and to her satisfaction, that seemed to be enough to take his mind off of it.

It took a few more minutes but Chao eventually came to a stop, turning to the group, "Here we are; the prison of Mogdashu, which is now simply too small to hold the amount of people we have had to throw in here during the past few weeks."

"You mean to say it's overflowing?" Sokka questioned in slight surprise, "How many are in there?"

"About three dozen," Chao answered solemnly, "Nearly a fifth of our population. Half of them had to be thrown in during the past week alone."

With that Chao led the group through the front door and brought them to a small room with a desk in the middle of it. The group looked around the small room curiously, not seeing much, but Katara was the first to notice the man sitting behind the desk. He was a middle aged bald man with dark eyes. He looked like the criminal type but if Katara had to guess, she would assume it would be the warden.

"Uben," Chao called to him, "We have company."

The man, Uben, who had been reading what appeared to be an inmate list picked his head up and turned his attention to the group before his eyes widened.

"The Avatar and his companions," he stated, his voice low and steady, "What brings you here?"

"They saw the fire when they were passing through and I'm hoping they could help us with our little problem," Chao answered before Aang could which Katara couldn't help but find a little rude.

It was then that she realized that they were doing exactly what Sokka had told them not to do the night before. They were just obeying this guy's every word without question when they should have taken up some sort of authority. She casted a glance at Sokka who had a small, barely noticeable look of annoyance on his face which had to mean that he was thinking the same thing.

Uben sat back in his seat and hummed, bringing Katara's attention back to the conversation, "Well it would be nice to get some actual help around here. I can only assume you've come to see the prisoners."

"The Avatar has to know what we are dealing with," Chao nodded.

"Very well," Uben stood up, "Follow me. This shouldn't take long."

Katara sighed inwardly.

_Yeah, _she thought_, we're pretty much just letting these guys do what they want with us._

Not that she thought that they didn't need to investigate what was going on here but they didn't need an escort everywhere they went. Maybe these guys were hiding something or more likely, they were probably just being cautious and wanted to keep their new arrivals in sight for the time being…Avatar or not.

Nonetheless, the group followed Uben and Chao through a door which revealed a long hallway with a little more than a dozen cells.

"This is all it is," Uben said, "Until now we've never had much trouble with violence so we never needed to make this any bigger. In hindsight, it's probably best that we had."

Katara couldn't agree with him more. The normal procedure for Earth Kingdom jails was that there was one prisoner per cell. Here however, there were two, sometimes even three in one cell and to make it worse the cells weren't even all that big. Maybe a little larger than Appa's saddle but not by much and as the group walked down the hallway, looking into each of the cells, Katara couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the people being held here. From what she felt from her connection with Aang, he was feeling something similar; though he seemed to be trying his best to hide what he was feeling.

There was something else that bothered her as well…all of these people in the cells, men and women, looked scared and from her experience, criminals never looked scared. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but something was just off. To her these people both looked and seemed innocent. She bit her lip from her conflicted feelings when a few of the prisoners grabbed on to the bars of the cells and practically cried to the warden and the mayor that they didn't commit the crime that they were being accused of.

"What did these people do exactly?" Aang suddenly asked, trying to ignore the prisoners that were pleading for freedom from their cells. As much as he wanted to help them, he knew that he needed to get a good understanding of all this first.

"I mixture of things, mostly murders," Uben explained, coming to a stop at one cell at the end of the hallway, "This one here is arguably the worst criminal of them all."

The man who was in the cell that the grouped stopped by looked up from his huddled position in the corner of the cell and Katara could have sworn that there were tears lining the man's cheeks.

"This is Shino," Chao told the group gesturing to the man who wore thin ragged cloths and didn't seem to have had a bath in days, "He was a close friend to me…until he decided to kill five of my workers at my home and then proceeded to try to assassinate me. We think he was trying to get control of the city."

"Pretty pathetic attempt if you ask me," Uben snorted, crossing his arms, gazing at Shino darkly, "He's scheduled for a public execution tomorrow. Nobody tries to kill our leader," he finished, casting a glance at Chao.

A terrified look suddenly appeared on Shino's face before he gripped the cell's bars with his hands staring Chao straight in the face.

"You all have it wrong," Shin told them, breathing heavily, "I was asleep in my home when that all happened and then some soldiers showed up in the middle of the night and locked me in here. I didn't try to kill anybody!"

"We saw you fleeing the scene," Uben spat had him, "and then we followed you straight back to your home. You're wasting your time trying to change our minds."

"Please," Shino begged, turning his gaze towards Aang, "You have to help me. You can't let them go through with this execution of theirs tomorrow."

Aang seemed at a loss of what to do. He looked back and forth between the man in the cell and Chao who was shaking his head in disappointment. Luckily for him, Katara spoke up, looking at Chao and Uben questionably.

"Is executing him really necessary?" she asked, sensing a feeling of relief come from Aang, "What if you have this all wrong?"

"We saw him do it," Uben told her sharply, not all too pleased about his judgment being questioned, "People respect Chao as our leader and they weren't too happy to find out one of his closest friends tried to kill him. Not to mention that he killed five other men, leaving five other families mourning the loss of loved ones. People have lost too many close ones around here and they are demanding justice. The way I see it, an execution might stop this madness by scaring off anyone else that has any funny ideas to try."

"Uben," Chao jutted in, "maybe you should show a little more respect towards the Avatar and his friends."

"I need to make this clear to them," Uben told him before once again looking between Aang and Katara, noticing that Sokka, Suki, and even Chao seemed to back away a few steps to let the group work it out, "You may be the Avatar but this is still our city. You have no authority over our methods of punishment. If you don't like it then you can feel free to leave."

"We want to help you find out why everyone is acting like this all of the sudden" Aang told him, trying to stay calm, "We're just asking if you can maybe hold off the execution for just a few more days. It might be enough time for us to figure all this out. Have you ever considered that all of these people might be telling the truth and that they really didn't commit any crimes?"

"What else would it be then?" Uben rolled his eyes.

"There was a cave not too far from here that Aang felt a lot of spiritual energy from," Katara explained, "It might have something to do with that."

"Oh please," Uben shook his head, "In all of our history, this city has never had any dealings with spirits of any kind. There is nothing around here like that. What the Avatar felt had to be something else."

Aang and Katara both sighed simultaneously in frustration before Uben spoke up again.

"Ultimately however," he continued, turning his gaze toward Chao, "Any decision is entirely up to Chao."

The city's leader nodded and was silent for several moments. He looked to Uben and then to the pleading faces of Aang, Katara, and Shino. He kept his gaze focused on the prisoner that he used to believe he knew better than anyone before he remembered the assassination attempt just a few nights earlier.

"I'm sorry," Chao finally spoke up, looking at Aang and Katara, "But the citizens of this city have been promised justice tomorrow and I can't back out on my word. Things will proceed as planned."

Aang and Katara's heads fell in disappointment and Shino let out a small whine before collapsing to his knees, his breathing quickening.

"Please Chao, for old times' sake," he begged one last time, "Give the Avatar and his friends a chance."

"He has made his decision," Uben said sternly in a tone that broke no more arguments, "I think we're all done here. Let's go."

He and Chao began to walk back down that hall back to the front of the prison and Sokka and Suki followed with a somewhat reluctant Aang and Katara in tow.

Aang was frustrated, Katara could tell. Then again, so was she. Like Aang, she respected the value of life and just the idea of executing someone…it sickened her. Her air nomad robes seemed to become uncomfortably tight around her as she felt a heavy feeling in her chest over everything that had gone on during the past few minutes.

Suddenly, she felt Aang's hand grab on to her own and give it a squeeze. She turned her head towards him while trying to force a smile on her face, to let him know she was okay. She knew he could see past it though…just as she was able to see passed his own smile that masked the sadness and guilt he was feeling.

She couldn't even imagine what this was like for him. She may respect all life but the Air Nomads had taught him that life was sacred…and now he might have to stand by as someone's executed for a crime that they didn't commit.

* * *

><p>Miyumi sighed in half relief and half in worry as she leaned her arms on the side of the small ship that she was on. Just as she had predicted, getting into and then leaving the docks hadn't been much of a problem and now she and everyone else was out in the middle of the ocean, sailing to someplace seemingly in the middle of nowhere. When Iroh had pointed out their destination on the map, which was right in the middle of the ocean, she had told him that he must be making some mistake. He had denied that however and told her just to trust him. She did, but she could help but feel like she was being kept in the dark…although that was exactly probably what Tau had been feeling for the past day.<p>

It was late at night, the moon's light was reflecting off of the dark water that lay beneath the ship and she was the only one outside on the ship's deck. She just assumed everyone was asleep, including Tau, which she couldn't help but be disappointed by. They still had yet to really talk but if he was asleep she wasn't going to wake him…no matter how much she wanted to. What she had heard other people say about him did not matter to her, she was just happy to see him again, and she hoped that her excitement came across to him when they first saw each other earlier.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard some footsteps behind her, and she didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.

"I thought you were asleep," she stated softly.

Out of the corner of her eye she was Tau appear at her said, gazing down into the ocean, "I don't sleep much anymore."

"Because of what happened when you were in prison?" Miyumi guessed but she instantly regretted it when Tau picked his head up in alarm and faced her. Maybe that had been a little to direct.

"How much do you know?" he asked. He wasn't demanding it, it wasn't even asked in a harsh way. It was just a gentle question. To Miyumi, that was enough to prove that he wasn't as bad as everyone else said he was.

"Probably more than you'd like me to know," She answered honestly, choosing her words carefully, "The details of your fight with the Avatar at the Southern Air Temple are a little fuzzy but everything else…I know what you've been through."

"Oh," Tau just let out that one syllable, not knowing how she felt towards it and not wanting to say any more about it if she didn't.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you in the Fire Nation Prison. It broke my heart to hear about it," Miyumi continued when it was clear that he wasn't going to say anything, "And your friends Ryu and Sorin…"

"They died in vain," Tau interrupted her gently but she could tell that her bringing up his lost friends bothered him, "We were so close to doing what we set out to do…but I let the Avatar and his girlfriend stop us. I don't even know why the Avatar let me live when he didn't even give Ryu and Sorin that chance."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up," Miyumi twiddled her hands, "It must have been hard for you."

"Most people would say that I deserved it," Tau told her, shrugging, "They think I'm insane."

"Well who cares what they say," Miyumi shrugged as well, pushing her hands off the side railing of the ship that she had been leaning on, "whose opinion do you really hold value to?"

"Yours," Tau answered simply, taking Miyumi aback a little. She hadn't been expecting that.

She stared at him for a few seconds as he continued looking out into the ocean before she stepped closer to him and grabbed one of his hands, causing him to turn his head towards her for the first time.

"You're probably worried about what I think about you after everything that has happened aren't you?" she questioned gently, already knowing the answer. Ever since she had told him moments ago that she knew what he had done, she could tell by his posture that nervousness had come up in the back of his mind.

"How could I not be?" Tau told her, turning his gaze away and back to the ocean, "In my entire life you were the only person that I could ever really open up to. I don't regret what I did but I know it wasn't morally right. I just always assumed that if we were to ever meet again…you'd see me as the enemy."

"Well you're wrong," Miyumi stated bluntly.

Tau raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised, "Really?"

"Tau," She started, "When I heard about everything you did; attacking Omashu, killing the Earth King, and almost killing the Avatar and that watertribe girl…I won't lie, part of me was a little nervous about meeting you again. I was afraid of what you had become."

Tau couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her. She had just told him that his assumptions about her feelings had been wrong yet she just seemed to be confirming them.

"But the second I saw you earlier today all of that nervousness vanished. None of it mattered," she continued, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers and looking at him in the eye to the point where he could see the moon's light twinkling off of her own, "All that I saw was the man that had saved me and for the first time in years…I felt like I could actually let my guard down."

She paused, gauging his reaction, which seemed to be relief.

"What I am saying," she elaborated, smiling, "Is that I don't care about any of that. You've made mistakes, that's all true…but you were doing it for what you believed in and I can't fault you for that."

"You know why I did all of it right?" Tau asked her, "Why I tried to release the Yanari?"

"You thought that they would somehow rid the world of all evil," Miyumi stated knowingly, "that they could end all conflict."

"Yeah but more specifically," Tau told her, "Every time I think back…I was doing it because of what happened to you. Those men that were…raping you," Tau forced the words out, "People like them don't deserve to be here."

"Well you took care of them from what I recall," Miyumi smiled, suddenly moving up to give him a small hug, "Thank you."

Tau broke away after a few seconds, "You know, despite everything, having you here and on my side means a lot. It's really the only reason I am going along with whatever it is Iroh is trying to get me to do."

"Yeah," Miyumi let out a small laugh, "He mentioned that earlier."

Tau just hummed in acknowledgment before they grew silent for a couple of minutes, both listening to the sound of the water splashing up against their small ship.

"So what about you?" Tau asked, breaking the silence, "Iroh told me you were one of the White Lotus' best agents. How did you even get involved with them?"

"I did promise that I would tell you about that didn't I," Miyumi laughed before looking back out into the ocean, voice growing soft, "My story is not as eventful as yours. After you left, what had happened to me was still very clear in my mind and with you gone and no parents…well, I was too afraid to really do anything."

Her eyes glazed over a bit as the memories flashed through her mind before continuing when Tau laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I promised myself though that I was never going to let that happen again. So I spent all my time practicing my Earthbending. The more I learned, the more confident I grew and after about a year I was ready to move on."'

She looked at Tau whose eyes were watching her intently.

"I left my little village," she continued once again, "I decided to go out and see other places," she paused and a small blush crept up to her white cheeks, "Part of me was even hoping that I would somehow find you."

"Little did you know I was already stuck in some Fire Nation prison," Tau said.

"I found that out soon after I joined the Order of the White Lotus," Miyumi told him, leaning back against the rail on the side of the ship's deck, "After a few months they managed to contact me. I had been alone and fought off who knows how many bandits who were trying to take advantage of who they thought was some helpless girl. I have no clue how the Order knew what I did, part of me doesn't want to find out, but they saw potential in me and they offered me to join them. I had nowhere else to go so I accepted."

"So you were only what…fifteen…sixteen years old?" Tau asked.

"Sixteen," Miyumi answered, "I've been with them for nine years. At first, I didn't really trust any of them. I kept myself withdrawn, only doing what they assigned me to do. As I grew to know more people that were a part of it though I became more comfortable and with my skills, I moved up through the ranks. Like Iroh told you, I'm now one of their top agents. The only people I answer to are the Grand Lotuses."

"Do you know who they are?" Tau questioned, "Besides Iroh."

Miyumi shook her head, "I don't even know how many there are. I know there aren't any more than five but no less than two. Otherwise, the only one that I have ever met with is Iroh. That's how they work. They keep a lot of things secret, even to their own members, so things don't get leaked out to everyone else in the public. Each person has a Grand Lotus to answer to and mine is Iroh."

"So I will be the first person to actually meet them all," Tau stated, scratching his head.

"Are you?" Miyumi raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know that's where we were taking you."

"It's what Iroh told me," Tau shrugged, "And with you and Fei coming along, you might even get to meet the others to."

"Maybe," Miyumi speculated, "It's never really been important to me. All I know is that if you agree to help them with whatever it is they want…I want to be there with you. They'll assign you a group to lead if they do things how they normally would."

"Well I already made up my mind that I'm not doing anything for them if they don't let you help me," Tau smiled reassuringly, "so you have nothing to worry about. I need people I can trust and right now you're the only one I have…the only one I need really."

Miyumi gave him a soft smile before turning her gaze back to the ocean, seeing Tau do the same. She didn't know what was going to happen during the next few days but Tau was back and to her, he was one of those guys who could handle just about anything. That was enough to make her comfortable to the point where she was willing to just let things play out how they were going to without her thoughts dwelling on it.

They stayed out there talking for several hours, each forgetting about any troubles they had in the past, and as the hours went by, both of them learned one thing.

It was like they had never even been apart.

* * *

><p>"None of this seems right," Aang fretted, plopping down on the bed in the small room that he and Katara had been given to stay in. Sokka and Suki were giving the room right across the hall. It was the nicest inn in that city but that didn't make up for what had happened earlier.<p>

Katara sighed, untying her air nomad robes from around her waist and stripping down to her undergarments before sitting next to Aang, "Are you sure there is nothing you can do?"

"I mean, if I really wanted to I could force them to hold off the Shino's execution but I don't' like abusing my power like that," Aang held his head in his hands, "Besides, what if we're wrong and he did do everything that Chao and Uben said he did."

"Even if that turned out to be true it doesn't give them the right to execute him though does it?" Katara asked him rhetorically.

"No," Aang picked his head up and looked at her, "But this is their city, and if I interfered and took power over them then how would that reflect on me? I would feel bad if I interfered with the system they have set up here but at the same time I would feel worse if I did nothing about it."

Katara bit her lip in thought. This was essentially a lose-lose scenario for them. Either they let Shino die or they risk damaging Aang's public opinion, which is very important if Aang wanted people to cooperate with him. After a few moments, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before speaking carefully.

"I know you don't want to hear this but maybe we just have to let them go through with it," she said, seeing a shocked look on Aang's face, "I know that it isn't right but if we interfere then they probably would refuse our help and then we would never get to find out what is really happening here…and then more people could end up like Shino. If we just let this run its course then we could stay here and help so that way no one else would have to die."

"You're saying that we should trade one life in order to save a few more," Aang surmised.

"I know," Katara looked down, "I hate having to say that but I think that is really the only viable option right now. This many people being arrested and all of them refusing what they were charged with just screams that something else is at work here. If we don't find out what it is, then more people will face execution. Like it or not, we have to have Uben and Chao's cooperation in order to do that."

Aang just sighed and laid down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling for several moments. At this point in his life, he knew by now that most people didn't value life the same way has he did and it was something that he had come to slowly accept. That didn't mean he had to like it though.

Katara knew that he was in deep thought as she felt numerous emotions coming from him before he let out a discouraged sigh.

"You're right," he agreed finally, his voice low, "But I'm not having anything to do with that execution tomorrow."

"Neither will I," Katara told him before changing the subject, "Though I guess we're going to have to send a note to my dad to tell him we'll be a little late to the South Pole then huh?"

"Yeah," Aang answered solemnly, taking his shirt off before climbing under the covers. He just wanted to forget about all of this and try to get some sleep.

Katara crawled in next to him and snuggled up against his side, resting her head on his shoulder while draping one arm across his chest.

"Let's just try to forget about it okay?" she told him, kissing his cheek only to have him turn his head to meet his lips with her own.

They kept the kiss gentle. He turned on his side and wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer to him, once of his hand combing through her hair. Their bodies seemed to meld together before they broke apart as Katara cuddled up against his chest, letting out a contented sigh. After the day's events, it felt good to just be back in Aang's arms and not having to worry about anything.

To make things better, she felt Aang's worry and frustration slip away out of their connection and it was replaced by a feeling of content that matched her own.

Katara listened to his heartbeat and took comfort in the gentle rise and fall of his chest as his breathing became shallow while hands continued to stroke her back.

It didn't take long before they drifted off into sleep, the day's worries gone from their minds.

* * *

><p><strong>Not really much to say about this one. Chapter 10 will be up next Friday!<strong>


	10. The Lotus

**I believe this is the longest chapter of the fic so far. Just saying...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar**

* * *

><p>"Avatar, please reconsider," Chao said respectively, "Your presence will comfort the people of this city. I'm not asking you to take part in the execution; all I'm asking is for you to be there."<p>

Aang scowled, it was early in the morning and Chao had decided to pay them a visit in Aang and Katara's room. Sokka, Suki, and Katara each kept themselves against one of the rooms walls as the Avatar and Mogdashu's leader argued.

"I don't support what you're doing here," Aang responded angrily at him, crossing his arms and leaning up against his bed, "I'm not going anywhere near this execution of yours. I'll find out whatever it is that is happening around here and why people are all of the sudden deciding to commit murder but I will not support any execution."

"It's called justice Avatar," Chao told him, stepping closer to Aang before the Avatar's voice stopped him.

"It's called murder," he corrected, "And if you want my help after you execute Shino then I need your word that there will be no more of it until we get to the bottom of this problem. I promise you, if you kill one more person, my friends and I will be out of here as quickly as we came."

Chao gazed at the Avatar before sighing and shaking his head, "I'm sorry you feel that way Avatar but this execution will happen. However, in the interest of solving this problem, we will hold off any other executions until we determine the cause of all of this," Chao begin to walk out of the doorway, "If you change your mind about coming, you know where to find us."

Aang shook his head in disgust as Chao left the room only to smile a little bit when Katara walked up and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"That's what I'm talking about," Sokka complimented, clapping his hands, "Way to stick up to him Aang."

"Thought you'd like it," Aang joked, "I'm surprised you kept quiet."

"Eh," Sokka shrugged, "I was going to join in but you seemed to have it under control. You don't know it but by standing up to that guy, you hurt his pride a little. Now he might be a little more considerate when dealing with us."

"Right," Katara agreed, "Not herding us around like he did yesterday. I can't believe he thought we would even want to watch the execution."

"You wouldn't say that if you're seeing what I'm seeing," Suki spoke up, looking out the window and seeing dozens of people walking down the streets towards the center of the city where the execution was going to take place.

Everyone joined her and look out the window as well.

"Man," Sokka shook his head, "These people must really like watching others kick the bucket."

Katara scowled and smacked him on the side of the head, "This isn't a joke Sokka! Somebody is about to be killed out there."

"Yeah, well there is nothing we can do about it if we want these people to let us help them," Aang stepped back from the window defeated, "We need to start investigating."

"Well where would we start?" Suki asked, turning her gaze at him, "All the evidence points to these people being guilty."

"But all of them are saying they are innocent," Katara pointed out, walking over to sit next to Aang, who had thrown himself onto the bed, "If that's true then that would mean either some outside force is making them do these things or they somehow simply forgot."

"Forgetting wouldn't explain why these people would commit any crimes though," Aang spoke up, "This town is supposed to be very peaceful."

"And look what all of this has reduced them to," Katara sighed, "They take pride now in killing one of their own just because of something that they think they did."

"And we need to put a stop to it, help this place get back to how it used to be," Aang said determinedly, thinking for a few seconds before speaking again, "We found that cave right before we found this place. In all of the times we have dealt with mysterious problems like this, a spirit of some sort has always been involved. I say we go back to the cave and see if we can find anything. I'm willing to bet a spirit that resides in there has something to do with it."

"Just like Hei Bai resided in that destroyed forest?" Katara questioned, receiving a nod of confirmation from Aang.

"Wait, hold on," Sokka held up his hands, "Maybe we should just asked around first once this execution passes. If there is a spirit around here, you'd think these people would know something about it."

"It beats going into some spirit cave that we know nothing about," Suki agreed, leaning against the wall next to the window she had been looking out of.

"Besides," Sokka continued, "Chao said he'll hold off any other executions. There is no need for us to rush this. We have time."

"Except that the longer we take on this, the more likely someone else will go crazy and do something," Katara reminded him.

"That's just a chance we have to take," Sokka replied, "We are this city's best chance at getting to the bottom of this and we aren't helping anyone by charging into some cave and getting ourselves hurt or worse."

"What do you think Aang?" Katara turned to her fiancé, deciding that he should have the final decision.

"Sokka has a point," Aang nodded to his future brother in law, who smiled triumphantly, "We should ask around first. We'll wait until this execution is finished with and once everyone goes back to their daily routine we'll split up and see what we can find out."

"And then we can all meet up later and compare notes," Sokka finished.

"We just need to find something to do until this stupid thing of theirs is over with," Katara leaned back on her hands.

"Well it shouldn't be long," Sokka grabbed Suki's hand and began to lead her out the door, "You and Aang just do what you normally do when you guys have some free time and Suki and I will do our own thing."

Katara raised an eyebrow as she watched her brother pull his girlfriend out of the room before turning to face Aang, who seemed in deep thought.

"You don't think Sokka knows exactly what it is that we've been doing do you?" Katara asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Spirits, I hope not," Aang sat up, "If he does then I don't think I'll need to worry about some cave spirit as much as I need to worry about him."

Katara just laughed before pulling him into a kiss. They didn't go much farther than that as what was going on outside in the middle of the city still lingered in their minds but the light kisses and cuddling was enough to pass the time for a couple of hours.

* * *

><p>Tau looked out across the horizon of the ocean trying to find…well, whatever it was that he was supposed to be seeing. It was midday and Iroh had ordered the Captain of the ship to stop the boat and drop the anchor. Everyone had gathered on the deck of the ship and they were all doing the same thing he was doing, except for Iroh, who seemed to be waiting patiently for something.<p>

"There's nothing out here," Tau shook his head, "What are we wasting time for?"

"Iroh knows what he's doing," Miyumi told him as she stood by his side, "Have a little faith."

"You're sure you don't know anything about this?" Tau questioned for what had to be the sixth time.

Miyumi was quiet for several moments before she hummed thoughtfully, "There's one thing that it might be."

"Well let's hear it," Tau said gently, giving her a curious smile. As with everything he said to her, it wasn't as much a demand as it was a request.

"I don't know exactly what it is," Miyumi elaborated, "But there was as rumor going around a few months ago that the higher ups had been working on something big. Only they and a select few workers actually knew about it. It's been kept secret all this time."

"You think that's about to change?" Tau asked.

"I don't know what else we could possibly be looking for all the way out here in the middle of the ocean," Miyumi responded, "My guess…its some giant ship that's probably more advanced than most since people from all the nations were pooling their resources to build it."

"Well what else besides a ship could possibly be here," Tau rose an eyebrow teasingly.

Miyumi just crossed her arms out rolled her eyes, "You're the one who asked what I thought it was."

"Maybe the Fei guy knows more," Tau speculated, "He's been hanging around Iroh a lot."

"Just to give you two your free space," a voice jutted in causing Tau and Miyumi to turn their head to see Fei joining them.

"And you're wrong about that," the firebender continued, "I am in the dark as much as you are."

Tau just huffed in irritation before walking off towards Iroh.

"Tau what are you…" Miyumi started before realizing that he didn't like being kept in the dark and that he was going to question the Grand Lotus. She quickly walked off after him, motioning Fei to follow her.

Iroh was leaning against the railing at the far side of the ship when he heard Tau walk quickly over to him.

"Okay grandpa," Tau spoke up, not really all that pleased, "I want some answers. Now!"

Iroh just smiled but never got the chance to respond as a slight rumbling suddenly filled the air. Tau hardly noticed Miyumi and Fei reaching them as everyone directed their gaze towards a spot on the ocean several dozen feet away where the ocean's surface began to bubble.

"What the…?" Fei spoke up in confusion as the bubbling began to intensify.

"You should be grateful Tau," Iroh finally spoke up, the rumbling off in the distance growing louder, "You're about to see something that only a few have…one of the greatest technological feats of our time."

"So the rumors were true then," Miyumi whispered, only loud enough for Tau to hear her.

Tau just hummed in agreement, keeping his attention on the violent looking bubbling that was going on before him.

Suddenly however, the bubbling and the rumbling stopped and silence filled the air. Tau could hear whispers of confusion coming from the crewmen before they were silenced by one of the most unexpected things the Tau had ever seen.

The water seemed to rise on its own and for a second Tau thought a huge wave had just miraculously appeared from nowhere but then the water subsided and fell back into the ocean. In its place was what looked to be the underside of a ship but at the same time it looked as if the object was right side up. Whatever this thing was, it only came about a few feet out of the water. Tau, along with Miyumi, Fei, and nearly everyone else, gasped in shock when they saw a women appear out from what must have been a hatch while she waved at them off in the distance.

"During the Day of Black Sun years ago," Iroh began, "The Avatar and his allies used prototype underwater ships that they called Submarine's. What you are seeing now is the combined efforts from people of all nation working together to perfect that design. What is visible now is only a fraction of what lies beneath the surface.

"How? How is this possible?" Tau asked in disbelief.

"I'm sure its Captain would love to explain it in detail but to put it simply," Iroh explained, "It's almost identical to a larger version of the airships that the Fire Nation uses with a few extra additions to make sure it can move, and survive under water. For all intents and purposes, this is the newly established headquarters for the Order of the White Lotus."

"It's incredible," Miyumi said, astonished, "And we're going in that thing?"

Iroh nodded, "We gave it a name. It's called _The Lotus_."

"Too bad you didn't put as much thought into the name as you did to actually build it," Tau deadpanned.

"A lot of names were thrown around," Iroh told him, not fazed by the comment in the slightest, "But in the end we believed it was only right to call it what we are."

Tau had been so focused on what Iroh was saying he had hardly noticed that their small ship began to move closer to the newly revealed submarine. It was much larger up close, nearly three times longer than the small ship they were standing on and Tau couldn't even begin to guess how much of it was under the ocean's surface.

Tau looked to the submarine to see the woman on the top of it bend down and lift up what appeared to be a metal plank that had blended in with the rest of the sub's surface. The plank however had one side attached to the sub and instead of picking it up, the women turned it so that instead of being across the subs surface, it stretched across the dozen feet of space in between the sub and the small ship, creating a bridge for people to cross over.

"Well what do you say Tau?" Iroh asked, "Do you want to cross over, or have you had enough of this?"

"Are you kidding, this just keeps getting better," Tau smirked, moving towards the makeshift bridge that already had the ship's crew crossing over it to the submarine, "If you hadn't been so secretive I would have agreed to whatever it is that you want me to do by now."

"I thought you had already decided to join us," Miyumi stated falling into step beside him as they walked across to the sub.

"He doesn't need to know that," Tau whispered, well aware that Iroh and Fei were walking just a few feet behind them.

Once everyone was across and on the surface of the submarine, the women moved the makeshift bridge back to its original position before coming up to greet them. She looked like a late middle aged women. There were small wrinkles in her cheeks and grey strands of hair dulled her otherwise jet black hair. She seemed to have a certain strength about her that denied her age and Tau didn't doubt that she would be able to put up a good fight against most benders. She also had golden eyes, signaling that she was Fire Nation.

"Hello everyone…Grand Lotus Iroh," she bowed respectfully, "My name is Rayya and I am the Captain of _The Lotus_."

"They let a woman be the captain of this thing?" Tau leaned over to Miyumi to whisper to her, "Isn't there a rule about that?"

"The White Lotus doesn't do all the prejudice," Miyumi whispered back and grinned, "It's one of the things I like about it."

"Well I think I am beginning to see why you joined," Tau told her, keeping his voice low.

"Oh, it's only one of the reasons," Miyumi retorted before she and Tau turned their attention back to Rayya when she spoke up again.

"Crewmen," she addressed the people that had been working on the small ship they had used to get here, "You already have your assignment. Get to it."

Everyone instantly moved and seemed to have the general idea of how to get inside. They all climbed down inside the hatch that Rayya had come out of and Tau could only assume that it led to the rest of the submarine. Once they were all gone, Rayya addressed the now smaller group personally.

"Miyumi, Fei…Tau," her eyes fell on the Waterbender, "If you'd follow me I'll give you a small tour before directing you to where you need to go."

"I'll come along as well," Iroh told her, "Tau and I will be going to the same place anyway."

"Very well," Rayya nodded, "Please follow me."

Tau exchanged a quick glance with Miyumi, who seemed to trust this new Rayya person so he assumed that she knew her. If Miyumi trusted her then Tau assumed he had nothing to be suspicious about so he followed in step behind Miyumi as Rayya led them to the hatch. Just as Tau had predicted there was a ladder going down to what appeared to be a hallway.

Everyone went down one by one. Tau waited until he was the last one outside before he too joined the others down the small shaft, closing the hatch behind him. It was a tight fit and Tau felt surprisingly claustrophobic. It probably didn't help that everyone seemed to be climbing down the ladder as slow as they could manage. It seemed like several minutes but Tau finally finished climbing down the ladder to find himself in a surprisingly open hallway that didn't feel crammed at all.

The surface of the walls and floor were made out of metal, just like the airships, and candles held in glass bulbs that hung from the ceiling casted light throughout the hallway.

"Didn't expect it to be so roomy huh?" Miyumi asked him, coming up to this side.

"Not after going through that shaft, no," Tau answered.

"Some people practically live here," Rayya spoke up, "During the couple of years it took to build this, we were mindful of that and worked to make it seem as comfortable as possible."

"Which is good since we'll be staying here for a day or two," Iroh told Tau before turning to Rayya, "I believe you promised us a tour?"

"More of an explanation and a small show and tell," Rayya responded, "_The Lotus _is a little too big to show you everything with the amount of time we have. The other Grand Lotuses are already in the Command Center waiting to speak with Tau; it probably best that we don't keep them waiting for long."

Rayya paused, walking over to a small console in the wall that Tau recognized as something similar to the intercoms that the airships had.

"Shirik," Rayya spoke into it, "Begin preparation and you are authorized to descend as soon as you are ready."

It was a few seconds but another voice responded through the speaker, "Yes, ma'am. I'll get right on it."

Rayya smiled, satisfied, "Shirik is the pilot of _The Lotus_," she explained, turning her head to address Iroh, "We'll be submerging soon and then we'll make our way to our next destination. The other Grand Lotuses have already explained the rest of the situation to me."

"So much for me being the first one to see all of the Grand Lotuses at a time," Tau said to Miyumi, "Seems like things have changed recently."

"For the worst," Iroh jumped in, turning to Rayya, "We need to speak with the Grand Lotuses a soon as possible."

"Follow me," Rayya nodded, walking down the hallway and gesturing for the group to follow them.

"They must be pretty desperate about something if they are bringing them all together like this," Miyumi told Tau in response to his previous comment to her, "This has never happened before."

"Well a lot of things seem to be going on nowadays," Fei said, walking in the back of the group, "Something big is going on isn't it."

"You'll know everything by the end of the day," Iroh told them.

"Ahead of us is the subs bridge," Rayya spoke up, bringing all the focus to her as the group walked, "That's where Shirik is and where I am most of the time. _The Lotus _is comprised of three floors. The one we're on is mainly just what you already see. It leads to the bridge and the engine room in the very back of the sub. The engine rooms spans the entire three floors and as I have said before, this ship is built with a combination of the airship schematics and the prototype submarines used in the Day of Black Sun. We don't require any waterbenders to direct the ship; instead we have rotors that propel the ship through the water. The rotors can shift in direction in order to move the sub were we need it to go. They'll shift upwards if we need the sub to descend and downwards to make it ascend…you get the idea."

"It's not the most efficient method," Iroh jumped in, "But it was the only technological possible way to do it."

"Correct," Rayya agreed, "Unlike the prototype subs, submerging is not instant. It's a gradual decline."

"Not very practical in the middle of a battle," Tau noted, "What about weapons?"

"_The Lotus _wasn't built for combat," Rayya answered, "It's supposed to be nearly undetectable. However, should the situation arise, it is armed with about a dozen torpedoes."

The group came to the first flight of stairs and Rayya led them down it. It brought them to a hallway similar to the one that they had just been in except now there were dozens of doors throughout it. Tau saw another stairway right next to them on the opposite side of the hall and he assumed that led to the last floor.

"This is the crew deck," Rayya told them, "We have about four dozen workers running the sub. Six work on the ships bridge, two dozen for the engine room, a few cooks for the cafeteria, which you'll find at the end of the hall. The rest of the crew is simply here for maintenance.

She turned to Miyumi and Fei, "Iroh and Tau need to go alone from here; I'll lead you to your rooms."

"Tau will explain everything to you later," Iroh continued, before sparing Tau a glance, "That is if he agrees to help us."

"Don't worry though," Rayya added, "The rooms are very accommodating. Very similar to something you'd find in a nice hotel. Since some people live here we wanted them to be comfortable. So follow me and I'll show you to your rooms."

Miyumi glanced at Tau briefly before giving him a small wave as she followed Rayya and Fei down the halls. Tau waved back before Iroh cleared his throat, bringing the waterbenders attention back to him.

"Come with me Tau," Iroh told him, leading him down the next stairway, "And try to be respectful when you meet the others."

"I'll do my best," Tau rolled his eyes as they reached the third and final floor, "So what's down here?"

The hallway was noticeable shorter than the previous two had been so Tau assumed that not many came down here.

"Access to maintenance areas mostly," Iroh shrugged, leading Tau to a door at the end of the hall and nodding to it, "And then there is the Command Room which is where we're going."

"What? Is that you're guys secret little meeting room," Tau joked sarcastically.

"It's actually not far from that," Iroh told him, opening the door.

They walked in and Tau was surprised to see the room seemed to be empty. It was a small dimply lit room with what appeared to be a table in the center of it. Tau walked up to the lone piece of furniture to find that it had a map of the world lying on top of it. Furthermore, the map seemed to glow and Tau quickly noticed that the top of the table was mad of glass with a small fire underneath it. Tau bent down slightly to find that it wasn't really a table at all. Four metal walls sat underneath the glass top and Tau assumed that the small fire was constantly burning. The metal walls kept it from escaping, it was small enough to where it couldn't melt the glass but at the same time it had nothing to put it out. Tau had to admit though; the glowing effect that it gave the map was something that caught his eye. It gave it a transparent effect.

"I hope you're impressed by everything you've seen so far," a voice filled the room, causing Tau to peak his head up from the map to see a man and a women stepping out from the shadows in the corner of the room.

Both of them looked about Iroh's age. The man, who was the one that spoke, had dull green eyes and his face was so wrinkled he looked as if he shouldn't even be in the correct health to be walking around. The small thin patch of hair and his raspy voice didn't help his appearance much either. The women looked a little better off, her white hair was tied into a bun at the back of her head and her blue eyes seemed to at least have a little life in them.

"I'm mildly intrigued," Tau answered the newcomer's comment, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, "I more surprised by what I'm seeing now. I would've thought that the people in charge of this whole thing would be a little…lively."

"Tau…" Iroh warned, not too pleased by the somewhat rude comment.

"It's alright Iroh," the women spoke up for the first time, holding one hand up in peace, "Tau has come a long way and I'm sure by now he's anxious for answers."

"But first it would be nice to introduce ourselves," the older man said, as he and the women walked up to take their place on the opposite end of the map from where Tau was, "My name is Bartus, I am the Grand Lotus representing the Southern Earth Kingdom."

"And I'm Zonya," the women continued, "I represent the interests of the Watertribes."

"Well I would tell you my name but I have a feeling you already know," Tau told them. He was a little suspicious, he hadn't missed the fact that Bartus said he represented the Southern Earth Kingdom. The fact that he emphasized Southern had to mean that there was a fourth Grand Lotus representing the Northern Earth Kingdom. Iroh was from the Fire Nation so it couldn't be him so who was it? Tau was sure that he wasn't supposed to know there was a fourth. Bartus slipped up. Tau kept that in mind.

"We know who you are Tau," Bartus told him, not thrown off by the fact that Tau decided to not go with the pleasantries, "We wouldn't have gone forwards with releasing you from prison if we didn't know everything there was to know about you."

"In fact," Zonya stated, "I'm the one that suggested your release. It took convincing to get my other two comrades to agree with it," she motioned to Iroh and Bartus, "but they came through so I hope you don't let me down."

"It depends on what you need from me," Tau told her simply.

"Tau has proven that he is at least willing to listen," Iroh stated, joining the other Grand Lotus's on their side of the map, "Its best that we be straight forward with him."

"We are giving you a chance to help undo what you started," Bartus started.

"Undo what?" Tau raised an eyebrow.

"Releasing the Yanari," Zonya answered.

"What are you talking about?" Tau asked, "I wanted to release them. That doesn't mean I did. I failed."

"Well we have reason to believe that you very much succeeded," Bartus told him, leaning his hands on the table.

"There has been various reports of unexplainable occurrences happening all over the world," Iroh began, "People have been mysteriously disappearing, acting different, whole towns have simply just gone dark with no word from them at all."

"Our spiritual guides, which are those that study and try to communicate with the Spirit World, have said they felt a disturbance," Zonya continued as Tau listened to them intently, "They say that the Spirit World is out of balance and they have lost their connection to it. They say they can't feel its presence anymore."

"And what makes you think that all of this is being caused by the Yanari?" Tau questioned.

"It's hard to imagine that this is all coincidence," Iroh explained, "Your battle with the Avatar at the Southern Air Temple happened about five weeks ago and it was there that you began the Yanari's release. All of this started happening around the same time. We have to believe that the two events are connected."

"I may have started the Yanari's release," Tau told them, crossing his arms, "But the Avatar stopped it. He destroyed the Air Temple to do that."

"That much is true," Zonya nodded, "But we believe that, maybe, by stopping it once it had already started, the Avatar merely delayed the Yanari's arrival."

"We don't know exactly what happened or how the Yanari managed to escape from their prison despite the Avatar's actions," Bartus continued for her, "but it is safe to assume that the Yanari are causing all of this. The massive storm brewing in the Southern Earth Kingdom is unheard of. Those types of storms only form in the ocean and only affect the shores. This storm however originated right in the center of the Earth Kingdom and it has gotten stronger."

"This can only mean it is of spiritual origin," Iroh concluded, "And if the storm and the other events are connected, then we have to assume everything is somehow connected with what is happening in the Spirit World. The Spirit World has been in balance for as long as we can remember. The Yanari is the only explanation for any of this, even though it might seem farfetched."

Tau was silent for several moments as he thought over what he had been told. If the Yanari had somehow been released then that meant he had succeeded, Ryu and Sorin's deaths weren't for nothing. Tau felt a sense of relief in that.

"The Yanari's release is what I wanted," Tau finally spoke up, looking at each of the Grand Lotus's across from him, "If what you are saying is true, then I hardly see that as a bad thing. The Yanari could be useful."

"You have been misinformed;" Iroh said sharply, "Whatever you think it is that the Yanari would help you do is just a fool's hope. They're dangerous. They could lead to the end of everything we know. The Avatar himself told you that very thing."

"The Avatar was desperate," Tau countered, "For all you know he could have been lying to try to stop me from continuing."

"The Avatar wasn't lying," Zonya told him, "What the Avatar warned you about was very true. You let your feelings get the better of you and you ignored him because of the death of your two companions. You didn't want their deaths to be in vain so you fought to release the Yanari even though you knew it was possible that you were wrong about everything."

"Well the destruction ofthe world is not what I wanted, I want to make that clear," Tau told them, his voice clearly hiding doubt.

"It might be what you receive though," Bartus told him, "Tell me, after what the Avatar did to his own home, destroying it to stop the Yanari's release from happening and after what we have done to get you here…do you really believe the Yanari are really what you convinced yourself they were?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore," Tau answered, his eyes staring down at the floor. No matter what he had done, he had always believed that he was doing it for the greater good. To think that his actions led to what could possibly be the end of the world was something he didn't even want to consider.

"Look," Zonya spoke up, "We just want you to help us investigate all of this. If the Yanari's release is imminent then we need your power and your expertise to stop them."

"Once you look into this yourself and if you feel that we are wrong about everything, then we can go our separate ways," Bartus continued.

"But if we're right, then you can help us stop it and take back what you've done," Iroh finished.

Tau looked up from the floor to them and breathed in deeply as he closed his eyes. He let out a sigh as he made his decision.

"Okay," he opened his eyes, "What exactly is it that you want me to do?"

"Like we mentioned before," Bartus smiled, pleased that Tau agreed, "There's been reports of towns having problems that they can't even begin to solve."

"The world's governments have dispatched their own soldiers to these spots to offer assistance," Iroh explained, "The Avatar himself his dealing with the most severe and complicated one down in a small city called Mogdashu."

"I'm assuming you'll be sending me to one of these towns as well," Tau raised an eyebrow.

"You'll take a small team and you'll disguise yourselves as Earth Kingdom soldiers to gain access to this town here," Zonya pointed her finger to a small point on the map at the Eastern shore of the Earth Kingdom, "The town is called Titilus and all we know was that they sent an urgent distress call."

"Wouldn't Omashu or Ba Sing Se already have sent support," Tau questioned.

"We already took care of that," Bartus told him, "No one outside of the town will be interfering with your investigation. We need you to go there, find out what is wrong, and report the situation to us. You'll get further orders then once we evaluate the situation."

Tau considered for several moments before nodding, "If I'm going to do this then I want Miyumi as part of my team. I won't do this with people I can't trust."

"Of course," Zonya nodded, "We suspected that would be the case. Miyumi will be joining you as well as Fei if you'll have him."

Tau thought about the firebender. Tau knew him somewhat well already so he would probably be a better choice than anyone else, "I'll accept that," he nodded.

"That'll be the only people you'll need," Bartus said, "We ask that you explain the situation to them personally and make sure they understand what is going on. Tell them what we have just gotten done telling you."

"Titilus is a day's journey from here," Iroh told him, "There is a room already prepared for you next to Miyumi's. Rest up and get ready to leave same time tomorrow."

"Will we be meeting again?" Tau asked, "Or are you guys just going to go back into the shadows and only communicate with messenger hawks?"

"I'll be in regular contact with you," Iroh told him, "Bartus and Zonya have to deal with their own agents."

"Miyumi said that we get assigned to one of you," Tau shook his head, "I never thought she meant that so literally."

"It helps keep things in order," Zonya told him.

"Which is why we need to get back to our other duties," Bartus said, "This meeting is adjourned."

With that, Zonya and Bartus walked out of the room, leaving Tau alone with Iroh.

"That went better than I expected it to," the older man said.

"So you really believe everything they said about the Yanari is true?" Tau asked, his eyes holding a sense of worry.

"Every word," Iroh answered, seeing that the Waterbender was a little distressed, "If it's any consolation, it's not all your fault. The Avatar made mistakes to. He told you how to release them."

"Only because I held Katara hostage," Tau retorted before shaking his head, "If they really are dangerous though then we're just going to have to deal with it. I can't go back and change things."

"Unfortunately," Iroh shook his head, "Tau, there is a chance that we are all wrong but if we aren't, I can't have you wallowing in guilt. I need your head clear."

"You don't have to worry about that," Tau said before he began to walk out of the room to explain things to Miyumi and Fei, "I'll keep my problems under control."

Despite what he said though, Tau felt himself a little fearful. He didn't care what everyone believed about him, he was not a monster. He didn't want to release spirits that would destroy the world. He wanted to release spirits that would help bring balance and peace to it…better than the Avatar could. If he was in fact wrong about the Yanari however then Tau knew one thing:

He had made the biggest mistake of his life.

* * *

><p>"So does anyone else feel like today was a complete waste of time," Sokka said, walking into Aang and Katara's bedroom with Suki to find that his sister and her fiancé, as well as Chao, were already there. It was late at night and they were all just coming back from asking around town if people knew anything about what was going on.<p>

"That's what we were just telling him," Katara answered, jerking her head at Chao.

"I mean, I talked to that Molu guy to," Sokka shrugged, "but he seemed to be more interested in meeting one of the Avatar's companions then solving an actual problem. Needless to say, he was about as useless as everyone else.

"That's because you were asking people the wrong questions," Chao told them, "You went around asking about some spirit cave that no one even knows about."

"The cave exists," Aang told him, "It's only about a couple minutes flight from here on Appa."

"Well no one has ever heard of it, let alone ever seen some spirit that you claim that has been causing all of this," Chao shook his head.

"Would you just lay off!" Sokka said sharply, "Just let us do our job."

"What would you rather us ask about?" Suki asked him curiously.

"Well that would be your _job _to find out wouldn't it," Chao glanced at Sokka, "Whatever it is, do it before anything else happens."

"We're doing are best," Katara told him, keeping her voice calm, "We've never seen anything like this either so we're in the dark about it as much as you are. You'll just have to give us time but we promise we'll get to the bottom of it."

"Well try to do it before the city is burned to the ground," Chao responded before swiftly making his way out the door.

"Man that guy is a pain," Sokka shook his head once Chao left.

"He's probably just scared," Aang said, "No one here knows what going on and for all they know their neighbor will wake up one morning and decide that they want to go kill their friend or something."

"You know, I couldn't have said it better myself," Sokka crossed his arms, "But that seemed a little harsh coming from you."

"I guess I'm a little more tired of all this then I thought," Aang rubbed one of his shoulders.

"Let's just get some rest," Katara suggested, "We can worry about it again tomorrow."

"Right after I use the bathroom," Sokka said suddenly as he turned to walk out the door, "I'll see you back at the room Suki."

"Okay…" Suki watched him go before turning back to Aang and Katara, "Did that come across as odd to anyone else?"

"Eh, its Sokka," Katara waved a hand dismissively, "Odd is to be expected."

The group let out a laugh and Aang and Suki couldn't help but give Katara and amused look.

* * *

><p>Chao found himself uncomfortable walking back to his large home in the center of the city. It was late at night and the moon was practically non-existent. Everything was pitch black and Chao couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him. If anyone wanted to kill him, now would be the time to do it.<p>

Someone must have been reading his thoughts because as soon as he thought that, he heard a quick rustling noise behind him. He turned around expecting to see someone only to see the empty streets of Mogdashu.

Feeling a chill run down his spin, he swiftly turned back around and began to walk a little faster. Was he just hearing things or was someone messing with him?

That question ran through his head over and over again before he began to hear the sound of someone running coming from behind him. He turned back around, breathing heavily, once again not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"Show yourself!" he called out.

As soon as he said that, he heard a loud thump coming from behind him but before he could turn to see the source, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head as something knocked him straight to the ground.

His vision became blurry and he felt himself begin to lose consciousness. The back of his head throbbed and he slowly reached his hand back to feel it. He wasn't sure if he was surprised to find his hand covered in his own blood. He heard footsteps walking closer to him and he attempted to crawl away from his attacker only to have a foot hit him roughly in the side and flip him over onto his back.

Chao gasped as he got a brief look at his attacker before everything faded to black…

* * *

><p><strong>So all I have to say about this chapter is about the name of the White Lotus's submarine. I tried a lot of different names for it but none of them seemed to fit or anything. I eventually just decided to be lazy and call it the Lotus. That's why I inserted the comment Tau made about the name being unoriginal or something along those lines. I figured since I couldn't come up with a better name for it, I might as well make fun of myself for it. So yeah, just wanted to throw that out there.<strong>

**Chapter 11 will be up next Friday!  
><strong>


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